Seahorses & hydroids?

[herpsandreefs]

After my 50 has cycled completly and I add a Refugium, I was planning on plumbing a 20-30 gal tall seahorse tank to it. I then read about hydroids and live rock. Even if I don't put live rock in the seahorse tank, will they still appear if there is LR in the main, and what are they? Do I need to set something up not connected to the main?, which I would really rather not do. Any knowledge appreciated
Chris

P.S What does "Junior Member" mean

 

[Len]

Hey Chris,

Junior member is just anyone who has under 25 posts It'll automatically change over to Reefkeeper once you pass that small milestone.

Hydroids might pop up but it's not super common. The biggest concern I would think is hydroids like fire coral (Milleopora) stinging the skin of seahorses that anchor on them. Millepora can be encrusting or branching and are usually brown or tan in color. Upon very close examination, they have short, transparent tentacles that protude 1 or 2 mm out. If you see these, you can kill it by grinding that area of the rock away. There are other methods like using chemicals, but phsyically removing that rock or grinding the area down is the easiest/safest.

Hope that helps.

 

[Len]

It's actually more of an advanced topic, so I copied it over to the General Reef Discussion for ya

 

[qwiksilver]

Just out of curiosity, how long have you been keeping salt. The reason I ask is that Seahorses, though cute and interesting to watch, are of the more demanding sp to start with and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have researched everything and I mean EVERYTHING about them. If water quality is below optimal then they become VERY disease prone and they are some of the most difficult to treat cause they don't respond well to meds cause they are so sensitive.

For your questions though, hydroids are colonial animals with tetacles and nematocysts that can sting and kill Seahorses. Hydroids have a predator, a type of nudibranch, which consumes the hydroid and stores the nematocysts in its wierd antennae on it's back (don't know the technical term) so that if it is ever attacked or threatened it can release them much to the surprise of the predator.

A site you should go to and read is www.seahorse.org

HTH

 

[herpsandreefs]

I've had my second reef tank for a year now and its doing pretty good. decent coral growth and no losses, really light fish load. Calcium @ 400 ppm, 2 PC 65 w each, about 1000 gal/hr. I've done a fair amount of research on them, feeding, water flow, releasing pouch air bubbles, etc, enough so that I think would be able to raise one or two. So should I worry about hydroids if there is no live rock in the seahorse tank but it is connected to the main?

 

[qwiksilver]

Hydroids aren't too common, but I've read that they can actually come in with brineshrimp eggs! They don't know the correlation yet, but if you aren't going to be harvesting your own live brine then I wouldn't really worry. The majority of SH tanks I know of are attached to a larger system. Sounds like yours should be ok. Just watch out for aptaisia. They can be a problem to SH.

 

[herpsandreefs]

Isn't there a nudibranc that takes care of aptaisia, or is that a cleaner shrimp. I have previously hatched live brine without decapsulating the eggs, but if I stop feeding brine and don't see any pests for a few months am I good? One more question, I was thinking that having a refugium with gravity flow to the SH tank then SH to the main would provide a lot more food for the SH. What types of food can I raise other than brine that I wouldn't have to decapuslate? Thanks
Chris

 

[qwiksilver]

I would recommend checking into the SH you're planning on getting. In other words, shop around, cause you can get some that will eat frozen mysis and brine (that would save you the hastle of growing your own). The peppermint shrimp from the carribean is one that will feed on smaller aptaisia's. If you feed their tank from a fuge you should be good as well seeing as you'll get pods and stuff filtering down to their tank.

 

[herpsandreefs]

Are there any types of food i can feed not being frozen? maybe a dry food I could add a liquid supplement. Reason is because I don't have a freezer in my dorm and dry would be much easier, & less wattage to my already overloaded room 8O :lol:

 

[qwiksilver]

HAHAHAHA! LOL! I haven't really heard of people having success with fd. If you have an established fuge you might be ok with just a couple SH.

 

[herpsandreefs]

A dry food soaked in enough liquid supplement to sink dosen't seem that far off from frozen. In that case though, i should just raise live and put them in the refugium to establish/breed then have a fairly continus, diverses supply of live food with some backup frozen food. So other than brine shrimp, what types can I raise and what setup to do so?

 

[qwiksilver]

I know it doesn't seem that far off, but tell that to them. :wink: Fish will eat what they want, and SH aren't an exception. You can grow the live brine and feed it to them, but try to have an established system for them to eat off as well. If you totally rely on the system, then they'll clean it out quickly, but if you supplement their diets, they should have less demand on the system. Are there any places near you that sell LIVE food. That would be a bonus. Otherwise, just get in contact with whom your going to buy off of and see what they are feeding theirs, and go with that. That would be your safest bet. :!:

 

[herpsandreefs]

The school I'm at is ten miles from the nearest "town" if you want to call it that, I need to be able to do everything with them on my own, which has worked out fine for the reef tank. I've rasied live food before for inverts, and brine shrimp for the reef, but I know seahorses will need more so I'll need to be raising a couple species of live food. Have you raised any food except brine, & if so, how? Thanks
Chris

 

[qwiksilver]

Sorry, can't help you out there! Maybe start a new post and ask people how they culture their live foods.

 

[herpsandreefs]

Ok thanks for the tips
Chris

 

[JennM]

Hydroids typically come in with artemia, as was mentioned in an earlier post.

Unless you are keeping dwarf seahorses (H. zostrae), you should not feed them live artemia anyway, except perhaps as an occasional treat.

Wild caught seahorses will need live ghost shrimp or mysids until they can be weaned onto frozen mysis shrimp. Captive raised seahorses are pre-trained to eat frozen mysis.

You cannot substitute freeze dried, they simply will not eat it. It's enough of a victory to get them eating frozen.

I kept my first seahorse about 17 years ago when the only available foods were artemia and baby guppies - luckily we know a lot more about them now, and there are better foodstuffs available.

I respectfully suggest that if you aren't equipped to meet their very particular nutritional needs, that you abstain from keeping them until you are.

Hope this helps

Jenn