Returning Aquatic Enthusiast

[Nivloc]

Hey there everybody.
Eddie here from Wirral UK ( Near Liverpool)

I was last involved with fish keeping back in the 1980's -90's. I had two large and quite clumsy looking 4 feet tanks.and a smaller tank for rearing babies.I manage to breed Angel Fish without a problem and had lots of fun with tropical fish and gold fish.

I have recently had a spell of ill health that keeps me at home more, but I have enough mobility to manage things like water changes and tank up keep and with more periods house bound, Found my thoughts turning to Aquatic hobbies again.

I have long been fascinated by Sea Horses, I know what some people will say " Oh no they are so hard to keep ! " but its not like I am a total noobie noob and have never kept anything before, I intend to do a heck of a lot of reaserch too before pondering any buys, I will have a well planned and truly well thought out space, I intend to read up for a couple of month.

I have plenty of time on my hands with being unable to return to my old employment, Vast amount of time on my hands and bored to tears, I REALLY would like a challenge getting back into the Aquatic hobby and have my heart set on Sea Horse breeding,

Would be interesting to see how tings have changed since the time I was last involved in the hobby. I certainly am seeing less 'chunky' tanks around and some nice designs, I don't want to just take any one persons advice from a shop. After all its a shop Salesman's job to "sell units isn't it.

So research seems to be the key, I REALLY do have my heart set on breeding Sea Horses and understand this could be very labour intensive to.

Sorry for any typos I am majorly dyslexic but try not to let it stand in my way.

Eddie

 

[Dflo]

Welcome Eddie. @flower will probably be chiming in soon. She is the Seahorse expert

 

[Nivloc]

Thanks for the welcome, I have a lot of patience to find out things before taking the plunge and a lot of patience to solve problems a trait I think will be suited to the hobby.

 

[beth]

Welcome to SWF.com! Nice to see a fellow hobbyist from across the pond. Yes, Flower does keep Horses so she will be able to help you along. I have seen some beautiful seahorse tanks (professional) and they are very unique eye poppers. Endearing creatures as well.

A lot has changed in the hobby since the 80s 90s so its good to hear you are patient. Patience with the learning process is most of the battle in this hobby. Learn before jumping in and you will get a lot more enjoyment out of your efforts. Do you have a good local fish store?

 

[Nivloc]

Yes there are plenty here the one I used to frequent way back when is still open, I don't like to browse too much until I am ready to buy don't want to seem like a pain when I intend to do a lot more research before I buy, My most local shop is only 2 streets away as well

I also do not want to be overly influenced by sales people who may be over stocked on one certain item lol

 

[silverado61]

Welcome back to the hobby. So many newbies come here saying, " My local fish store said this. My LFS said I should do that. I trust my LFS. " Only to come back later with, " Everything died! Why? What did I do wrong? I'm going back to my LFS to find out what happened. "

So it's refreshing to hear someone say, " I don't want to talk to my LFS. I don't want to go near my LFS till I know I'm ready. "

Flower is our sites Sea Horse expert and will have some awesome advice. So pick her brain. There are other Sea Horse experts here but we haven't heard from them in a while.

Again, welcome back. Enjoy the ride!

 

[flower]

Hey there everybody.
Eddie here from Wirral UK ( Near Liverpool)

I was last involved with fish keeping back in the 1980's -90's. I had two large and quite clumsy looking 4 feet tanks.and a smaller tank for rearing babies.I manage to breed Angel Fish without a problem and had lots of fun with tropical fish and gold fish.

I have recently had a spell of ill health that keeps me at home more, but I have enough mobility to manage things like water changes and tank up keep and with more periods house bound, Found my thoughts turning to Aquatic hobbies again.

I have long been fascinated by Sea Horses, I know what some people will say " Oh no they are so hard to keep ! " but its not like I am a total noobie noob and have never kept anything before, I intend to do a heck of a lot of reaserch too before pondering any buys, I will have a well planned and truly well thought out space, I intend to read up for a couple of month.

I have plenty of time on my hands with being unable to return to my old employment, Vast amount of time on my hands and bored to tears, I REALLY would like a challenge getting back into the Aquatic hobby and have my heart set on Sea Horse breeding,

Would be interesting to see how tings have changed since the time I was last involved in the hobby. I certainly am seeing less 'chunky' tanks around and some nice designs, I don't want to just take any one persons advice from a shop. After all its a shop Salesman's job to "sell units isn't it.

So research seems to be the key, I REALLY do have my heart set on breeding Sea Horses and understand this could be very labour intensive to.

Sorry for any typos I am majorly dyslexic but try not to let it stand in my way.

Eddie

Hello, and welcome to the site. I am no expert...but I do keep seahorses.

When it comes to keeping seahorses, things have taken a great leap forward! They were considered hard to keep because they had to have live food. The only seahorses that has to eat live newly hatched baby brine shrimp are the tiny dwarf horses. The larger species, such as Kuda, Erectus, even potbelly are easy as can be to keep. You should also purchase a chiller, even tropical horses need a tank at 74 degrees, potbelly horses need the temps down in the 60s. That's about the only real expense of setting up a horse tank. A tall tank is best for breeding, the horses need vertical space to do the mating dance and deposit eggs into the males pouch.

If you purchase captive bred seahorses eating frozen food, they are no harder to keep then regular fish. So make sure you purchase captive bred. Wild caught horses can be trained to eat frozen, but it's a huge gamble, if they don't take it right away, they will starve and die. Captive bred, are already feeding on frozen Mysis shrimp.

This site sells Erectus, but you can get other species, Seahorse source is a good place to find them too. The tank is set up different because seahorses need to hitch their tails, if you decide to purchase power heads make sure you get the type that they can't hitch their tails to the propeller. Power heads create heat, and you have to make sure the flow isn't so great it blows the horses around.

You will also need air lines, no air stones, just let the line produce big bubbles, the horses like to play in them, and it keeps the water circulating without too much turbulence.

They are messy slow eaters, decorative macroalgae not only gives them a place to hitch, it also keeps the tank parameters pristine... So check out "Golf Coast Ecosystems" and if they don't have the type you want, just keep checking back, they will have it as soon as it's in season. I always purchased fake décor until the macro I wanted was available, so the horses had a place to hitch.

They don't need special lighting, neither do macros... but if you decide to have corals you will need to do some research and find the ones that can handle the cooler temps, not all corals need fancy lighting.

 

[Nivloc]

In my research to date thats the main theame I am hearing too, " My LFS said so and so " whilst many LFS I am sure offer wonderful advice, the main thing of any company is to sell " Units " and I stongly believe that even the very best LFS is just part of the commercial chain. From a background in sales it makes me ultra cautious to 'gen up' up even if it takes 2 - 3 months in finding out, LOL I just think my background in sales techniques has mad me ralise when somebidy is trying to " Close the deal " and on the other hand I am not sure that a LFS would like me just turning up and asking question after question and not making a single purchase. I would feel obliged to at least buy something sooner rather than later, Not that I am frugle with money, If anything I tend to go ' All in ' buy the best quaity I can afford, My Dad used to have a saying " Buy cheap, buy twice " I will just put this logic back into play,

 

[Nivloc]

Ans hiya flower posted just after I answered the last message.

 

[Nivloc]

I hear a lot and see a lot a lot of things written about tank size, I will be looking for a tall tank thats about 3 feet wide for a space I would like it to fill. I read it should be around 30 Gallons ?

I have considered this size of tank
Aquastyle 850 - length 84cm x width 44cm x height 58cm

Volume 165 litres
Supplied with a Power head 1000 L/Hr, two carbon and filter wool pads, two sponge pads and ceramics Efficient reflector lighting unit built in with 2 x 25w, 1 x 20w lamps

 

[jay0705]

Just to help w tank size. If avb in your area marineland makes a nice 56 gal. Tall but nice for small spaces

 

[Nivloc]

Thanks for the advice, the bigger the better then LOL !

What are the pitfalls of smaller tank sizes ? I have read it takes more uptake and time to look afteer a smaller tank but I have plenty of time on my hands to play with and to dedicate to tank care right now,

 

[jay0705]

Biggest down fall is bc of the lack of water volume it takes far less time for things to get out of whack. Salinity, water prams, ect. Also it limits your stock choices

 

[flower]

Thanks for the advice, the bigger the better then LOL !

What are the pitfalls of smaller tank sizes ? I have read it takes more uptake and time to look afteer a smaller tank but I have plenty of time on my hands to play with and to dedicate to tank care right now,

Hi,

Yes it's true...the larger the tank the easier it is to keep stable. A 30g tank will hold one pair of seahorses, the 56g will hold two pairs. Seahorses are vertical swimmers, so the tall tanks are best for them, since you said you want to breed them, Erectus is easier then Kuda, they hitch right away.

I have never tried to keep the seahorses babies alive, I thought about it real hard, and even purchased a 15g tank for just that reason. I have paid close attention to others that have tried... The babies die off big time all the way through maturing, and the last huge hurdle is getting them to eat frozen foods. Out of lets say 80 fry, you get maybe 7 that make it. Seahorse.org is the best place for seahorse info, and how to breed them.

 

[Nivloc]

I have found a nice 275L tank 60 gallon, seems to fit the bill nice. Its cubic so its taller for vertical swimmers, A nice cabinet so , other half do't give me ear ache LOL and looks nice for visitors, I have a spare room in the house its a converted bedroom, box size, ( to use for the breeding area so can be a bit more laid back about what goes in there, thats MY SPACE and used to be the room I used for ham radio. in there. I also think we pay a bit more for stuff in the UK, I am looking at about a grand UK£ for the system I want, I am currently selling off my ham radio equipment too as this hobby I feel has been out dated by technology of todays but thats another debate) I should be able to assemble about 2K UK£ with the sell off of my radio equipment. So thats a nice pot of extra cash.

I think 2 pairs is a nice start and have been reading about the Erectus too, I may add a Clown Fish too as I see people with a Clown Fish in with Seahorses.

I remember my Angel fish I used to breed where very territorial and when they became the size of a large table plate. I sold them off to my LFS as a young teen, (I left the hobby when I discovered girls LOL ) I also read that Seahorses are territorial, My Tropical Angel fish used to set up camp in a corner of the tank and charge any other Males that came within distance !

I also used to breed Swordtail Tropical fish with two 56 Gallon tanks and a small 10 gallon tank for the youngsters, I probably used to over stock my tanks as a teenager with over exuberance ! So the experience of Clear Water Tropical fish is something I can call upon but I bet Salt Water is a whole different ball game !

I am a methodical person and want to plan everything out so still will not rush into things,