New to horses

Bangemslim

Membership Expired
Kids bought an Aqueon 29 gallon tank and 20lbs of sand. I am using a Prism HOB skimmer, Current USA 2x18w T5 light with actinic bulbs, and (what I'm worried about) MJ600 with an old filstar spray bar. I'm worried that it's not enough flow for the tank. I also have a MJ1200 if the 600 doesn't cut it and I get nuisance algae.

There's a few zoanthids, Kenyan trees, grape caluerpa, and waiting for a few other macros and gorgonians before I add the horses.

Is there anything I need to add or change or should be concerned about?
2399c393dad9cb98990fd74cf4dbdaea.jpg
alt="">
758b25e990ec3cbaedc90523554bc730.jpg
alt="">


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If your implying sea horses I haven't kept them yet no time with an baby I will be doing dwarfs and breeding.:) But what I would worry about is the coral zoas to be particular they have toxins the can release with sea horses not being strong swimmers I would worry about it injuring them. Most horse tanks have macros and sponges. i really look forward to seeing you your progress to learn what works for you.
 
I was worried about the zoas but saw a few tanks with them. For the height I want to do more algae that grows vertical. Don't want to do too much rock and have any dead spots since I'm already concerned about flow. Pretty sure I'll be ordering about 20 dwarfs in the next few weeks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I hope someone will chime in and help with some questions I have.

My plan is to get H. Zosterae and I want to mimic natural habitats. From what I've read they are mostly found around beds of eelgrass or mangrove roots. This would benefit nitrate removal and the seahorse. Since I only have a 29 is it plausible to keep either of those? I have yet to find anything on the sale of eelgrass since it's being used to help repopulate certain beaches and the likes from human destruction. However, turtle grass is common as well as caluerpa prolifera. Are these viable substitutes if my tank can handle them?

Also before I purchase the sea ponies I want to make sure that I have a method of hatching brine shrimp and enriching them that works. I plan on using them for fish food in my 135 for now but would it hurt to let some populate the seahorse tank? Pods are already increasing in there but I want to make sure I can provide food before obtaining and then starving the seahorses.

Also, the ambient temp in my place is never above 76 and is usually 74. Since I added a lid to the tank the temps have raised to 77. My light is only 20" so I need something for it to rest on but since I am only using a HOB skimmer and filter what can I do to cool temps?

The only place that I can find that has zosterae all the time is Cramers Critters and amazing prices. They say they're all captive bred and raised which is also a plus. Does anyone have any experience with them? Good or bad.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
By tank bred seahorses, cheapist you can find, do not worry about their natural environment, no other fish, no crabs, on snails and make sure they eat frozen brine. On the landscape, put as much stuff in there for them to wrap around as you can. You will more than likely kill a number of natural seahorses before you get the hang of it. Even tank raised if the water quality isn't good they will die. If you have any other questions you can text me at 214-727-6911 Trust me, horses are very difficult.
 
H. Zosterae need to be in a smaller tank.

http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/SeahorseFactsAndInfo.pdf --- these folks can be a little tedious, but a lot of their information is good.

Have purchased from Cramer's a number of times and also use http://seahorsesource.com/.

You can net them along the coast in FL ( Ft Pierce used to be a good collection site, but the run-off from farms etc. has modified the bay water so much it takes a while to find enough to justify the trip. 10 to 15 feet off the Hollywood Beach pier used to work, but we have not been down there since they started building the Margaritaville Beach Resort. We attempted to collect in the Keys two years ago but there is so little public access to the beach areas it was a total wasted trip up and down the full length of the Keys.)

Personally I don't find any difference in survival rates for WC or CB. We have had both live for years, and both die in months due to stupid actions on our part.

(Pods are obviously the best food. Problem is obviously growing them at the level needed for horses as these things will eat way more than you would think possible. Years ago Todd Gardner (if memory serves) had a pod he found off the NY coast that worked well. Don't know if he still has them but he will be at the 2015 MACNA so you might get someone to ask him for details.

We use three of these for hatching brine shrimp http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/large-hatchery-cone-stand-p243.html Three lets you have one new batch every day. We feed the extra to other tanks but you can just fill the lower 1/3 or so of the cone and raise only what you need for the horses.

We also prefer eggs from BSD but they are frequently out due to issue with their collection area (see above on why we don't raise more that we need). We buy 2 -3 lbs when they are available ( they pretty much last forever).


We have off and on been pretty successful with breeding .. but the dwarfs REQUIRE constant maintenance as poor water quality or even minimal algae build up guarantees they will die.

It is a MAJOR challenge to leave for a week's vacation when you get a sizable herd as it is very difficult to find someone that will stop by to feed them multiple times per day and do all that is necessary to grow and gut load brine shrimp. Many of the commercial support groups would not even quote on maintaining these tanks for extended periods.

We don't have any tanks set up at the moment, but I will be building a "simpler" version of this http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/nftt/index.php when we decide to get back to raising these again to see if we can reduce the workload.
 
Top