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Calling all seahorses! (1 Viewer)

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Cody

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Seahorses are my new frontier but I don’t know much about keeping them. All insight and experience is welcome down to what diameters the tank should be. Anyone with experience, please feel free to add on. How do I keep these suckers happy and healthy?
 

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Seahorses are my new frontier but I don’t know much about keeping them. All insight and experience is welcome down to what diameters the tank should be. Anyone with experience, please feel free to add on. How do I keep these suckers happy and healthy?
Cool tank and heavy filtration. My mother has kept seahorses pretty successfully and those have seemed to be our biggest issues. The seahorses are so slow that she has to over feed the tank to make sure they get enough food, so nutrients become a problem. Nutrients rise quickly and cyano and algae will grow on the seahorses and bog them down, making it even harder to feed them. A cool tank will help keep growth down, as well as being what they prefer. She keeps the tank 72 and I do about 25% water changes every week to keep up with the nutrients, which isn't bad since its a small Red Sea Nano. We also had to increase filtration in the tank a couple times to keep up, mostly more filter media for bacteria growth and heavy carbon/GFO use at times. She has had the current pair over a year.
 

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My last seahorse tank was custom built by Ben at BAO... it was 20x20x36H
 

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I started collecting items to start a sea horse tank. 1/15 chiller, gorgonian and such. Still reading up though. I ha Eva nice jbj 25 aio but I like the 20x20x30ish tank mentioned .


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Cody

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I started collecting items to start a sea horse tank. 1/15 chiller, gorgonian and such. Still reading up though. I ha Eva nice jbj 25 aio but I like the 20x20x30ish tank mentioned .


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Would you really need a chiller? Wouldn’t just turning down the heater work?
 
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Cody

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Well my main tank gets to 81 during summer so was kinda scared not to get one ;/

Cheaper than running house at 72 ;)


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How warm is your house that your tank gets up to 81?!!
 
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@Cody You should’ve brought this up when I was there Sunday! Lol I used to breed them very successfully for a long time... both mustangs and dwarves (I don’t recommend the dwarves) never used a heater, but I also ran T5s that helped keep the temp a little warmer than the house. 72 is the preferred temp. You’ll read about shallow tanks... don’t do it. Seahorses “dance” in the mornings and they like to go up and down the tank, so a tall tank will keep them happy. I had a 29 tall that the mustangs loved, and a 5 tall for the dwarves. LOTS of macros... stay away from coral that can sting... low flow, no light requirement other than to grow the macros. Make sure all macros are pest free, as seahorses are highly susceptible to disease, especially pregnant males. Keep foam on every intake. There is an online store called Alyssa’s seahorse savvy... they sell captive bred seahorses already eating frozen (not dwarves though, they will ONLY eat live baby brine, so include a hatchery if you go that route) as well as BEAUTIFUL and CHEAP gorgonians and sea fans for hitching posts... all you need on one site as well as care sheets. Any questions, I’ve got answers and have learned from many mistakes lol just HMU
 

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@Cody You should’ve brought this up when I was there Sunday! Lol I used to breed them very successfully for a long time... both mustangs and dwarves (I don’t recommend the dwarves) never used a heater, but I also ran T5s that helped keep the temp a little warmer than the house. 72 is the preferred temp. You’ll read about shallow tanks... don’t do it. Seahorses “dance” in the mornings and they like to go up and down the tank, so a tall tank will keep them happy. I had a 29 tall that the mustangs loved, and a 5 tall for the dwarves. LOTS of macros... stay away from coral that can sting... low flow, no light requirement other than to grow the macros. Make sure all macros are pest free, as seahorses are highly susceptible to disease, especially pregnant males. Keep foam on every intake. There is an online store called Alyssa’s seahorse savvy... they sell captive bred seahorses already eating frozen (not dwarves though, they will ONLY eat live baby brine, so include a hatchery if you go that route) as well as BEAUTIFUL and CHEAP gorgonians and sea fans for hitching posts... all you need on one site as well as care sheets. Any questions, I’ve got answers and have learned from many mistakes lol just HMU
@Cody , Alyssa's is one of the places I told you about.
 

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@Cody You should’ve brought this up when I was there Sunday! Lol I used to breed them very successfully for a long time... both mustangs and dwarves (I don’t recommend the dwarves) never used a heater, but I also ran T5s that helped keep the temp a little warmer than the house. 72 is the preferred temp. You’ll read about shallow tanks... don’t do it. Seahorses “dance” in the mornings and they like to go up and down the tank, so a tall tank will keep them happy. I had a 29 tall that the mustangs loved, and a 5 tall for the dwarves. LOTS of macros... stay away from coral that can sting... low flow, no light requirement other than to grow the macros. Make sure all macros are pest free, as seahorses are highly susceptible to disease, especially pregnant males. Keep foam on every intake. There is an online store called Alyssa’s seahorse savvy... they sell captive bred seahorses already eating frozen (not dwarves though, they will ONLY eat live baby brine, so include a hatchery if you go that route) as well as BEAUTIFUL and CHEAP gorgonians and sea fans for hitching posts... all you need on one site as well as care sheets. Any questions, I’ve got answers and have learned from many mistakes lol just HMU
Have you heard anything about seahorse.com? I've been slowing getting this 40 breeder ready to be a seahorse tank and was planning on getting a pair from there once I was ready
 
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Have you heard anything about seahorse.com? I've been slowing getting this 40 breeder ready to be a seahorse tank and was planning on getting a pair from there once I was ready
Seahorse.com was good, too... they’re in cahoots with OceanRider. They were based out of Hawaii though, so I’m not sure if they’re still around. I still prefer Alyssa’s for the pure fact that she is super responsive, even to this day. She’ll even send you pics and work with what your looking for if you email her.
 

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Taller the tank the better and heavy filtration, Sw setup plus FW filter. Tj got it all right.. same thing I did. In the wild their in ocean seagrass and such which is very very tall upwards 100' thats why 72* also preferred. Some species need mid to high 60s
 
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