Jennfindingzen
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I've always been fascinated by seahorses and never saw any chance of ever having them as pets. My bf is an expert with his tank and I mentioned it to him and he explained that they are hard to care for (although he has not had any experiences). I still pursued the idea of a nano tank with seahorses and other tank mates. 
I started my own seahorse tank during mid-November 2011. I was always fascinated by my bf's 80g reef, and as a Christmas gift, he found a used JBJ 12g Nano Cube from Craigslist. It came with semi-live rock and all the essentials we needed to get started for a cheap price, plus it subtracted several months of cycling.
After two weeks of only cycling, we tested the water, did a water change and decided to add our first pets into the nano.
First inhabitants were:
dragon-faced pipefish, banded pipefish, firefish, and green chromis.
Casualties:
1. After two days, the green chromis had a bloody legion on his side and we witnessed him scratching against rocks. That injury proved deadly and he died.
2. After about a month, day after Christmas, the firefish mysteriously surfaced upside down, breathing, but dysfunctional, and died the next day.
3. A week and a half later, the nocturnal banded pipefish who always hid died (malnutrition) it seemed like.
4. 2 Peppermint shrimp (I realized they eat pest anenomes and I did not have that)
After all the fish had died, I only had the dragon faced pipefish with other corals. He was well and thriving. I was feeding him baby brine shrimp and he picked copepods off the rocks. After several weeks of water changes, my bf surprised me with two seahorses that I have closely identified as hippocampus erectus. One black and one yellow, which are now all black and do not really change back to yellow anymore. My bf also added in the Green Spotted mandarin dragonette which was quite tiny.
Casualties:
5. Dragonette was found dead last night. He had already been looking thin. I buy copepods only once a month which i saw him eat. I tried to feed him shrimp, and nutramar ova, & cyclops, but he was not interested. I hear that larger dragonettes may have learned how to eat aquarium food, and some small ones just don't adapt.
I forgot to mention that my bf replaced the death of the banded pipefish for another yellow seahorse, who by no surprise also turned into a little black seahorse and now I have three twirling tails, playing on the intake jets and experimenting near the mod skimmer & the suction pull they are so curious about.
I know that the aquarium should be at least 30g for a mated pair as I have read about in several forums. The seahorses I have were tiny, the 12g nanocube is about 6x their body length. I started boosting their food with Selco several times a week and I noticed a slight growth in their body. They are healthy and well and do eat frozen foods (thank goodness)! So far I do not see a problem holding these adorable, beautiful creatures. We are actually considering getting a small 4th seahorse to be mated with the 3rd wheel seahorse. They all play together, but the first two introduced together are always together and the little one is left out.
The temp. in my tank is kept between 74-76 deg. I feed them about 2-3x a day depending on their mood. I tried to train them from a station bowl with no success.
I started my own seahorse tank during mid-November 2011. I was always fascinated by my bf's 80g reef, and as a Christmas gift, he found a used JBJ 12g Nano Cube from Craigslist. It came with semi-live rock and all the essentials we needed to get started for a cheap price, plus it subtracted several months of cycling.
After two weeks of only cycling, we tested the water, did a water change and decided to add our first pets into the nano.
First inhabitants were:
dragon-faced pipefish, banded pipefish, firefish, and green chromis.
Casualties:
1. After two days, the green chromis had a bloody legion on his side and we witnessed him scratching against rocks. That injury proved deadly and he died.
2. After about a month, day after Christmas, the firefish mysteriously surfaced upside down, breathing, but dysfunctional, and died the next day.
3. A week and a half later, the nocturnal banded pipefish who always hid died (malnutrition) it seemed like.
4. 2 Peppermint shrimp (I realized they eat pest anenomes and I did not have that)
After all the fish had died, I only had the dragon faced pipefish with other corals. He was well and thriving. I was feeding him baby brine shrimp and he picked copepods off the rocks. After several weeks of water changes, my bf surprised me with two seahorses that I have closely identified as hippocampus erectus. One black and one yellow, which are now all black and do not really change back to yellow anymore. My bf also added in the Green Spotted mandarin dragonette which was quite tiny.
Casualties:
5. Dragonette was found dead last night. He had already been looking thin. I buy copepods only once a month which i saw him eat. I tried to feed him shrimp, and nutramar ova, & cyclops, but he was not interested. I hear that larger dragonettes may have learned how to eat aquarium food, and some small ones just don't adapt.
I forgot to mention that my bf replaced the death of the banded pipefish for another yellow seahorse, who by no surprise also turned into a little black seahorse and now I have three twirling tails, playing on the intake jets and experimenting near the mod skimmer & the suction pull they are so curious about.
I know that the aquarium should be at least 30g for a mated pair as I have read about in several forums. The seahorses I have were tiny, the 12g nanocube is about 6x their body length. I started boosting their food with Selco several times a week and I noticed a slight growth in their body. They are healthy and well and do eat frozen foods (thank goodness)! So far I do not see a problem holding these adorable, beautiful creatures. We are actually considering getting a small 4th seahorse to be mated with the 3rd wheel seahorse. They all play together, but the first two introduced together are always together and the little one is left out.
The temp. in my tank is kept between 74-76 deg. I feed them about 2-3x a day depending on their mood. I tried to train them from a station bowl with no success.
