Currently community tank, want to go seahorses

[flanque]

Hi,

I've currently got a pretty standard 55G community tank with a scopas tang, orange tail damsel, two perc clowns and a bi-colour angel. There's 45KG of rock and a few corilamorphs and button polyps.

I'd like to "convert" to a seahorse tank. The tank is way too crouded with live rock and the current is pretty rapid (two 1200L/hr power heads, a HOB skimmer and a canister filter).

Can someone please guide me as to what's needed to keep seahorses? I'd like to get rid of maybe half the rock so that tank opens up really nicely but am concerned about maintaining sufficient bio filter. How much live rock does a 55G need to maintain a healthy bio filter? If you look at my gallery you'll see how packed it is. I'm also looking to get rid of the tang and the damsel, but keep the bi-colour angel and the two clowns. I may go and add something like a goby to keep the sand turned over too.

Maybe there's some guide to keeping seahorses as well somewhere?


Thanks.

[melosu58]

Seahorses need to be in a species only tank. The fish will out compete the SH`s for the food. I had some awhile back and could not keep them longer than 3-4 months. They just kept coming up with Vibrio a bacterial thing. Here is some info

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2004/fishb.htm

http://www.seahorse.org/

http://www.seahorse.com/

http://www.seahorsesource.com/index.html

http://dracomarine.org/

[Innovator]

They do not have to be in a species specific display, but your fish selections must be more selective and your husbandry heightened.

[rkilling1]

Here is a nice list of suitable tankmates:

http://www.seahorse.org/library/arti...ankmates.shtml

[melosu58]

From my experience they always out competed the SH`s for food. I guess as James suggested you could find some fish. SH`s move much slower than fish so it would have to be something slow. Those SH forums I gave you were very informative.

[flanque]

Thanks for all the tips. My clowns however, after they've had their feed simply go off and leave the food alone. I think on feeding I could be OK with the clowns.

What about the amount of rock I should keep? I'm even thinking of building some of those stands which you place rock onto so you can build hidden caves at the back of the tank so the inhabitants can feel more secure.

[melosu58]

When I had mine I would get alot of Tonga rock as it has alot of points coming off it for the SH`s to wrap their tails around. Here is what my rock looked like. I would say that 75% of the time they are stationary with their tails wrapped around LR or macroalgea.

[flanque]

I meant on the bio-load aspect of things.

[melosu58]

Oh OK. I was just pointing out that somewhere to wrap their tails around is more important then the caves. But as far as bio load I just had the same amount as I would my reef tank. About 1.5 to 2 lbs per gallon.

[Innovator]

You may or may not have a problem with your clownfish getting along peacefully with seahorses. It is not a matter of food consumption, but rather territorial aspects during mating/breeding that would cause problems. Centropyge spp. are hit or miss depending on their attitudes. You won't know until you try unfortunately. Depending on the seahorse specie(s) you are interested in, they may actually prefer cave-like structures. If you want to go the extra mile you can choose a specie and research its natural habitat; otherwise, a natural setting (reef w/macros and gorgonians) would be ideal ime.