Currently community tank, want to go seahorses

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flanque

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
740
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.
 
They do not have to be in a species specific display, but your fish selections must be more selective and your husbandry heightened.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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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.
 
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.
 
Also, keep in mind that a seahorse is very hard on your bioload. They eat frozen mysis and it's recommended to feed 2-3 times a day. Even with rinsing and using a feeding station, it's pretty tough to feed that often and keep nitrates low.

For what it's worth, I did have clowns that outcompeted even my mandarin for frozen food. People have had good luck with clowns and horses, but be prepared to ditch them if they are too fast. If you can get a mandarin that accepts frozen, they are the perfect tank mates.

As a side note, melosu58 and I were running seahorse tanks around the same time, and I think we would both agree that they are tougher than you'd think.

I lost 2 of mine pretty quickly but kept the other 2 for about 9 months. I eventually sold them because they were just too demanding. I loved them. They were really fun to watch and feed. They really are demanding on your time, especially when you need to treat one for an illness (and you will). That gas bubble disease is a real killer and hard to prevent. I too would recommend seahorse.org. Please, read read read before you buy. The seahorse tank really is a different beast (low flow, lower temps, slow moving fish, etc.). The more you know up front the better chance you have at success.

Personally, I think they are still a little too demanding. Be sure you're ready to dedicate some time to the horses. If not, they may not be for you. Again - seahorse.org

- Skins
 
Thanks for all the tips.

Seems they are more trouble than they're worth. Might give these a miss.
 
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