seahorse nano for beginner

[Jimbob_1978]

I`m thinking of setting up a nano reef with a couple of small sea horses and am about to set off on doing a bit of research starting here. I`d just like some opinons and help on an initial setup, what size tank (smallest), what equipment to use, water parameters, how much live rock, what sort of sand bed, filtration, lighting etc. all advice would be grateful no matter how small, i want to make sure i do this right.

 

[Diana]

I havent kept them yet but am going to soon be getting some Dwarf Seahorses. They do best in small tanks, from 2.5-10 gallons. Do a google search on them you will find lots of useful info. I was going to put them in my nano tank but since then i've gotten live rock and turned it into a reef tank, and they do best in a species-only tank with no live rock and some macro algae. So, i will be setting up another 5 gallon just for them

HTH
-Diana

 

[davelin315]

There's actually a seahorse site dedicated to only sea horses. There's a lot of very knowledgeable people on that site on keeping sea horses. I kept them before in quite an interesting set up. I had a 350 gallon pond that had a bat ray in it which jumped out and died so I decided to throw in some sea horses. The system as a whole was in excess of 500 gallons, but I put 5 hippocampus reidi (if I remember correctly, basically, the Brazilian sea horses) in it, dumped in a shipment of 1000 mysis shrimp into the refugium along with a bunch of grass shrimp from someone, and let them roam freely. There was a lot of flow in the pond area, but when it came down to it, they were pretty happy as there was also plenty of room to swim in low current areas, plenty of rock to search around in, and a mat of macroalgae the size of a small child to hunt in. They also were trained fairly easily to eat frozen mysis as well. Anyway, I think the name of the web site is seahorse.org but I'm not sure. Some of the members here are regulars on it.

 

[Anonymous]

For the new folks,

:welcome:

The site www.seahorse.org is a great resource for this type of stuff. I don't have any experience with horsies (although I do have a pipefish) Good luck, you'll love them!

 

[Irie Eyes]

seahorse.org is all you need, my friend. I could spend hours replying to you, or you can just go there and absorb the wealth of information. My only request is that you do your homework, as far too many people jump into seahorses without knowing what they're getting into. Read, read some more, and then read more after that. You have much to learn, yet the force is strong with you.

Btw, to the person who said dwarfs can be in a 10 gallon, please understand that this is not appropriate at all unless you are an experienced rancher. The concentration of bbs required in a tank that large would be insane! Your little dudes would be lost in there, anyway. Keep it to 5 gallons or less.

 

[Diana]

Well i've never kept them before but read in several places that 10 gallons or less is fine. Although, in a 10 gallon you would need many pairs. :wink: