Seahorses

[erikharrison]

Does anyone on MAAST breed seahorses? My lil girlie and I have been seriously contemplating the whole seahorse tank for the bedroom thing. I have the 20g High tank, standard flourescent light (till I want some low flow corals), a double biowheel filter, for maximum filtration without too much flow, and my old faithful berlin airlift skimmer (airstone aint so bad).

I'd like to go see someone's setup, to help me kinda get some ideas to make this tank look really good for a minimum budget.

Also, if someone has some seahorses, that are "easy" to start with, I'd like to see what kind of costs I ("I" being my girlfriend, because "I" kinda talked her into it) will be having to incur. I have read all of the stuff online, for a couple of weeks now, and I am ready to see some setups.

I could also come take some snapshots with my (girlfriend's) Nikon d80 Digital SLR (awesome) camera, if I could knock off the price of some seahorses or w/e.

LMK if you are a person, or know someone that may be interested in helping a fellow MAASTARD out!!!!!

BTW Jason at Aquarium Design just got in some ___?___ Red Seahorses, and they are going for 109.99

I can not afford those :)


POST!!!!!!!

[erikharrison]

anyone????

[JimD]

Erik, you might want to contact member "seamonkey", I believe hes the resident horse jockey around here and I think he may have successfully reared babys, also, "loans and fishes" may be another source of good information on seahorses..... Hope this helps and good luck!

[Richard]

I don't know of anyone currently raising seahorses on maast.

A 20 is on the small side for most horses so you would have to stick with maybe a pair of reidi's or barbouri's (for an idea on cost...ORA reidi's will run around $45-50 each and ORA Barbouri's around ~$60-70). All the other species will get too large and it's too big for dwarves(plus you'd have to hatch food for them). If it were me, I would set it up as a hiatt system (filstar xp3, tribase carbn and RN bacteria) no additional filtration would be needed. Then some liverock, some pretty macro algae's, and for corals you could do softies (no stony corals) plus a flame scallop or two & some featherdusters. Then a couple of compatible fish. Maybe something like an orange spotted goby, and a neon goby. Would be a nice low maintenance tank IMO. Also try to keep the tank n the cool side (mid 70's).

[erikharrison]

yeah I read your post on the HIATT setup, dont you work @/own CB Pets, or am I mistaken? If so I may swing out there to buy some stuff. I have a filstar xp2 stuffed with carbon in one basket. it seems to work well. Also, we're not in any way rich, and we have sacraficed alot to get this far this fast. We just wan the current 20g tall in our bedroom (freshwater) to convert over to s/w and house some horseys as inexpensively as possible.

[Jeff]

i had the best luck with seahorses when i had a small tank with a bio wheel filter, a little rock, a couple of fake corals, and some macro. i never used a chiller and i basicly ignored them for maintenance. i had 2 pair in a 30 gl. that would breed constantly. now that i know what i am doing i can't seem to keep any new horses alive.

[Richard]

Erik - You can do a tank with just a HOB, I was just saying how I would set it up. I put the general local price range on the ORA horses because all of my horses from them have done great. Pretty much all the wholesaler's are offering "tank raised" seahorses now pretty cheap but those are mostly pen raised horses coming out of vietnam. They claim they are Kelloggi's but I think they are hybrids (kelloggi/kuda IMO). Anyway pen raised is not the same as tank bred/raised and I haven't been able to keep any of those alive for more than a couple of months. So if you see a $25-30 seahorse you can be pretty sure it's comng from one of the wholesalers. Oh, yeah I work at CB Pets sometimes. I put my sig on if I'm trying to sell something, otherwise I'm just talking out of my ...

Jeff - what kind of horses are you having problems with. I'm just sticking with the ORA horses (reidi's & barbouri's) and for H. erectus I got them from Redcrest Pets in boerne. Those have done good for me although the breeder he gets them from is also his live brine shrimp supplier. So they were pretty used to live food, took about 2 weeks to get them eating frozen really well.

[erikharrison]

well are there any LFS that sell horses on the constant?

[Richard]

Well I think all the shops get them in but I don't think any will always have them instock.

[Jeff]

the last few that i had bought were from different places around town. they looked good for a few weeks, eating and swimming around, then they were gone. almost every place that sells them can't tell me what they are, and half the time they are wrong about that.

[Richard]

almost every place that sells them can't tell me what they are


Then they are probably the so called Kelloggi's that are coming out of Vietnam. Seems like every wholesaler is carrying those now. Some list them as TR kelloggi's and others just listing by color ( TR black seahorse, blk&yellow, etc.). I went thru 12 of them before giving up on them. They don't have enough tail rings to be true kelloggi's. All of mine had 35-36 tail rings (easy to count when their dead :cry ) and kelloggi's are supposed to have 39-41 tail rings. I think they're hybrids, maybe kelloggi/kuda since they are both native to vietnam. Anyway, that's the same thing that happened to all of mine - did great for awhile and then dropped quick from vibrio I think.

[Jeff]

thanks for the info richard, i thought i had lost the touch completely.

[loans_n_fishes]

Erik,

I am certainly no expert, but I do have a seahorse tank. (It's my first attempt, too.) The meeting is at my house this coming weekend, so come on over and see it. It is nowhere near pristine, but it is a work in progress.

I have a couple of erectus seahorses that I bought from Aquadome here in Austin. They have done very well. I could watch them all day and night!

I had a couple that I got for Christmas drop dead. The LFS said they were reidi. However, I strongly suspect they, too were the pen raised ones. They seemed ok for a while (though they were always on the thin side) then suddenly they were gone. I was depressed for days.

I strongly suggest paying a little more up front for the horses and getting them from a trusted breeder. It sure beats buying a cheap horse and spending some mega $$ on medication only to watch them die.

I have heard rave reviews about Seahorse Source and Draco Marine. In fact, I will probably order my next pair from one of them.

Erectus and Reidi are supposed to be some of the hardier horses.