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OK, I'm thinking of getting ambitious and converting my current 5 gallon hex tank to a seahorse tank. I'm looking at the dwarf seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae , and I've read at http://www.seahorse.org that 5 gallons is the perfect size for them. In what direction would you point me next? Anyone else out there with this species that could offer an opinion? Both my wife and I absolutely love seahorses, so we're excited at the idea but certainly don't want to make a rash decision. This would be my first marine tank.

Seahorses require a lot of attention. If you really want to keep them, I would suggest a larger tank. In SW smaller tanks are very hard to keep.



Dan

Seahorses require a lot of attention. If you really want to keep them, I would suggest a larger tank. In SW smaller tanks are very hard to keep.

I understand, but what I've read is that 5 gallons is the max recommended size for this specific species.

You can keep a seahorse in any size tank you want. A bigger tank will give you a stable tank. With a 5gal tank you will have to check your tank every day. You will also have to top off your tank everyday, if not your salinity levels will change.




Dan

Small seahorses do better when kept in smaller tanks, dthurs.. They are the exception to the norm in regards to what is an ideal tank size.. Due to their slow movements and rather lethargic natures, in large tanks they tend to starve from being unable to find enough food..

I'm sorry, apologelicus, but I don't have any personal experience with keeping ponies.. If I were to begin researching them however, I'd probably start with a website like wetwebmedia.com.. Do a search on seahorses and you should find FAQs and articles that will get you going.. You will also want to do research on setting up and maintaining a nano saltwater tank.. As dthurs mentions, they can be a challenge to even an experienced SW keeper, but certainly not impossible for a dedicated aquarist..

Good Luck to you..

I haven't kept seahorses personally, but I did educate the public about them at the NY Aquarium. I also saw the filtration they use.

The tanks were rather large, I would say 40-60 gallons for species like the Northern Seahorse and Longsnout seahorse. They had a HUGE tank for pot bellied seahorses, I would say over 100 gallons. They had about 10-15 seahorses in that tank.

The main thing is to make sure there is not a strong current. Provide a lot of places for them to hang on to. For most of the day they hang on to the rocks/corals. They fed all the seahorses frozen mysid shrimp.

A very difficult part of taking care of them is feeding. Seahorses have no stomachs, so many in the wild eat up to 3000 shrimp a day. You must feed them often, and have very strong filtration.

Another downside to keeping them is that many species only live about two years. The largest species live about 3 to 4 years.

Also, steer away from wild-caught seahorses.

HTH

On the topic of seahorses....
We were thinking of setting up a largish tank (60"x20"x20" - 93 gal water capacity + whatever the sump may be) that we have at the moment for a seahorse display tank. We've never kept seahorses either, and have done some research a few months back. Can anyone reccomend what type would be good in a tank this size, and would it be ok to keep a few inverts/clean up crew in the tank with them (mithrax crabs, turbo snails, hermit crabs), but not shrimp, as they are likely to either be picked on, or eat all their food.
How do you get around the low water movement requirements and the tank just going stagnent with too much food and not enough oxygen? Lots of cleanup crew and a big skimmer/ozone in the sump?
I've also read they tend to like caulurpa type alagaes to hold on to.
Tom.

To keep a searhorse you will need extremely high water quality and low water flow. There will also need to be something branching such as a couple of varieties of a nice macro algea. This gives the seahorse something to anchor to as they hold on with their tales. The last consideration is the food. It is very hard to get enough nutrition to a seahorse. The graze all day and need an enormous amount of nutrition for their size. I mean comparatively of course. There are articles every month in FAMA about keeping them, you could do some good research there if you wanted to.

Raider_fish

You also need to avoid any kind of filter or airstone that will produce bubbles.

When I was doing my research on keeping seahorses I would often visit the forums at http://www.seahorse.org/

OK, I've done some more research and found that most of the stuff posted here on seahorses has been good in general, but does not apply to the particular type of seahorse I was asking about. The dwarf seahorse has much different needs due to its small size. It's too small to eat mysis shrimp and has to be fed live baby brine shrimp. This, coupled with the fact that it tends to be a lazy eater, means that it's very difficult to keep them in a tank larger than 5 gallons, because it's then hard to make sure you feed enough for them to eat but not overfeed and clog the tank.
Also, most dwarf seahorse keepers advise against LR, LS, or the like because of the danger of hydroids to these small creaters.
I could go on, but my point is that perhaps we need to be more careful in the advice we give. Just because certain things are true of most seahorses doesn't mean they apply to all. This is a good reminder to me, too to doublecheck everything before commiting to a decision. And thanks to all for your willingness to help.

Last edited by apologeticus at 01-Oct-2004 18:30

Last edited by apologeticus at 01-Oct-2004 18:33