Dwarf Seahorse Planning Stage

[sillysidewinder]

I've been contemplating for the past few weeks on how I would like to stock my ~12 gallon with fish. I currently have a clownfish and cleaner shrimp and various snails and crabs. I have decided that since I cannot have a large variety of fish due to the size of the tank that I would like to do a more interesting creature. I will get rid of the clown and cleaner shrimp in order to make room for something new. So I started to think about seahorses. Granted I am just at the beginning stage of this and would like to get all questions answered before I move forward. I would love to get some input from people as to various requirements, suggestions, warnings, etc.

I plan on getting various gorgonians and other corals for the seahorses to grasp onto.

I also plan on having a brine shrimp hatchery in the tank itself to feed the seahorses. I'm just starting to research these now, however, I thought it would awesome to be able to put it into the back section of my AIO tank if possible. Is this possible if I raise the water level high enough back there?

Like I said, this is just my very early thoughts about it. I would love some advice and look forward to hearing back from the community. Thanks!

 

[sillysidewinder]

I will also post articles as I read them in case anyone else wants to check them out.

http://www.fusedjaw.com/aquariumcare/dwarf-seahorses-as-pets/

http://www.worldofseahorses.com/dwarf basics.htm

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Brine shrimp are not a good food... They have no nutritional value. You can get a rotifer culture started. If you keep the tank planted and with enough live rock, you can keep a rotifer culture running in the tank. I used to breed them and I personally found this to be the best way...

Alfred

 

[sillysidewinder]

Brine shrimp are not a good food... They have no nutritional value. You can get a rotifer culture started. If you keep the tank planted and with enough live rock, you can keep a rotifer culture running in the tank. I used to breed them and I personally found this to be the best way...

Alfred

Hi Alfred,

Thanks for your response. Could you elaborate on how I would be able to get a rotifer culture started. Would this suffice as the sole food source for the seahorses?

Another Question:
Would it be possible to do this tank as a non-photosynthetic tank? Since I will have to have some sort of constant food source for the seahorses, it seems like a perfect opportunity to do non-photosynthetic corals.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

It is possible, but I would recommend that you keep them in a planted tank so that you don't have to kill yourself keeping a rotifer culture going. Calerpra is a good, fast growing plant. They would feel more at home... They are collected in fields of sea grass.

Alfred

 

[andylee]

I may be wrong, but I thought baby brine shrimp were generally the preferred food for dwarf seahorses. For larger seahorses, grown brine shrimp are a problem, but that's because the yolk sac, which is where all the nutrition is, gets used up as the baby brine get more than a few days old.

Problem in a larger tank is getting the shrimp density high enough to feed the seahorses. Even a large batch would diffuse out in a tank that size very quickly if you just let them hatch and drift around. Probably better to hatch separately and then use an eyedropper or something to put a little cloud of shrimp by each seahorse. Can become time-consuming.

Another problem with the hatchery in tank is that the eggshells can carry hydroids, which are a huge problem for the dwarves. You might want to investigate decapuslated eggs. They were hard to find when I had my dwarf tank a few years ago.

 

[Geraud]

The most usual way to feed them is enriched bbs. You can find a lot of information about them on seahorse.org.

When I put mine in my tank, there were a bunch of copepods too... they did not last long.

Be careful, you cannot really reuse your tank "as is": crabs are a no-go due to predation, and you could be facing hydroids.

The only creatures I keep with mine are sexy shrimps and a bunch of small snails (like Stomatella coming from my main tank)