Sea Horses?

[sunny]

Hi. I am starting plans on a 45 gallon tank that I just purchased used (too good of a deal to pass up)
My daughter would love to have Sea Horses however I know that they require many special needs...
Does anyone have a SeaHorse tank that could coach me through this?
Is 45 gallons enough?
Any other information would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks...

 

[revhtree]

Here is a link to some saehorse info.
http://www.seahorse.org/

HTH!

PS. I dont know much at all in the way of seahorses, but others here do. So until they respond yu can read up on the link I gave you.

 

[sunny]

Thanks "revhtree"... I will check it out!

 

[Hara]

I have alot of seahorse experience. I would recommend that you don't get seahorses until you have a good bit of experience under your belt with saltwater and all it entails. They are a demanding species. Feeding can be somewhat difficult and would require live foods (not always available) for most of the wild caught seahorses and although captive raised or tank bred is the way to go, you will find
that it is getting very difficult to find these. The usual sources for such are drying up fast due to regulatory issues and other things. The tank set up itself is contradictory to what most salt water tanks are like and it can be quite challenging to provide a suitable environment.

 

[sunny]

"Hara" Many thanks for the information and heads-up...
The reading that I have done to date let me know that keeping "sh" are difficult. I am in the process of setting up a 75 gallon, so the sh tank will be later. I was thinking of working on it over the Christmas Holiday (getting it started) I had no idea that it is difficult to find/buy them.
There is a lfs that has them on a regular basis, it never occured to me to ask them about availability, but I will do that.
The lfs that I mentioned does a tremendous amount of service, so perhaps they have clients that they have set up sh tanks for. Anyway, I will continue to do my research. I don't have to go with the seahorses, just thought it was something that I could get my daughter interested in and then it would give her the love for aquariums that I have.

 

[Hara]

Be sure to ask the LFS if they are wild caught or captive bred/raised. Also, do not be afraid to ask them to feed the horses in front of you so that you can watch them eat. If they say they only feed at a different hour, ask when so that you can see. Feeding them is a very big challenge and diseases in wild caught horses are quite problematic. Parasites are also something endemic to wild caught horses.

The fact the local store has them on a regular basis would indicate to me that they are wild caught....another indicator would be price. If they are fairly inexpensive, then they are NOT going to be CB. These are just a few things that come to mind to watch for.

 

[sunny]

I will ask, as I need to stop by there today. "Always like to stop at the lsf....

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
As time goes by I am sure there will be many more questions! Still planning for now!
Thanks Again!