Most people here are replying from the 'old school' era.
This is VERY important:
Pretty much everything said here as far as difficulty and hard to keep, etc are referring to the OLD DAYS. It all APPLIES to WILD CAUGHT seahorses.
However, having said that, I know for a FACT that a certain web site retailer breeds captive bred seahorses that do VERY well even in NEWBIE hands.
When I got my tank a friend of mine that did NO research, NO reading, and NO real commitment purchased a kit at a website that included a 10 gallon hex and seahorses. The tank came first with complete set up. Then 2 weeks later (so much for perfected water conditions) the sea horses come by mail.
These suckers are DIFFERENT from ANY seahorse I have ever seen. They understand 'feeding time'. Unlike any other seahorse I have ever seen, these go into a 'Feeding Frenzy' at lunch time.
Remember, this person (for those who have been to my site, KLUE is the person - the "k' at the bottom of my site is for his name) Had NEVER done anything salt water. But so far so good, and those suckers look great!!
It is true, those guys eat like PIGS. Get ready to feed them 2 - 3 times a day. His prefer those shrimp (cant think of the name right now, but it starts with an M)
They do NOT prefer smaller tanks, but they seem fine in the 10 gallon. What they DO need is a vertical tank. Seahorses swim more up and down than left and right. And if you wanna try and breed them, then they have to have a good lenght upwards. (They swim upwards during courtship) They DO require things to latch on to. (IE: that spiny coral stuff with lots of branches)
And do NOT have strong powerheads in there.. think of them like Jelly fish bobbing along in the water. A stong power head will blast them against the walls of the tank.
Hope this helps
alianated
www.alianated.com