dwarf sea horse ina 10g lps tank?

[bboyin4lyf]

howdy,
i've decided to set up a 10g ive had lying around for a while, its going to have a 130w pc fixture, a hang on the back filter and a small powerhead-hoping for around 10* turn over. the plan is to have an lps only tank. that will remain unchanged. however, as for more mobile inhabitants i was thinking of adding 2 dwarf sea horses. zosterae most likely. i was thinking of adding 2 very thin pieces of live rock or something of that nature that the sea horses could hold onto. so they dont disturp the corals and vice versa. how does this tank sound to you? any major problems or implications?

 

[Anonymous]

i'd only be concerned with the slow moving seahorse accidently runnimg into an lps...

 

[Unarce]

I'd avoid putting seahorses in an LPS tank as well. They are slow eaters, and would more than likely run into LPS when trying to compete for food. Also, the flow rate required for LPS will also be too much for the little guys.

 

[bboyin4lyf]

lol they'd run into them? wake up in the morning and find a sea horse eaten by my brain coral. fun times. hmmm good point though. you ever kept sea horses?

 

[WRASSER]

hey guys, sea horses do not get stung due to the skin they have, it is more like light armor for them. it will be ok to put them in the tank. just make sure you dont have fast swimming fish in with them. blennies and gobies are ok choices, anything else will eat the food before the seahorses get to it.

 

[Unarce]

Hmm, never knew that

 

[WRASSER]

yea reefnutz, i had three sea horses in my 55 with a very large BLT and it never faze them a bit. Now they didnt swim right into the anomone, it is a very aggressive eater and i believe it would grab one and try to pull it in to eat it, but the sea horse would be able to swim out of it because the stingers are what it holds with.

 

[bboyin4lyf]

the seahorses would be the only mobile inhabitants besides snails etc.
ive never kept a nano and ive got the 10g cycling now. im hoping this could be a beautiful tank. im planning on having some frogspawn, elegance, bubble and some shrooms. all small colonies of course. im feeling a bit apprehensive about such a small tank and i cant find a skimmer small enough. does any one have any good diy sall skimmer references? im a diy newbie to the max. do you guyz see this tank working? im allways on top of the husbandry for my 70g, ie 20liter water change a day etc but this size tanks making me 8O

 

[WRASSER]

...YOU CAN DO IT, you really dont need a skimmer for a tank at this level. Just keep an eye on the parameters and do a water change as needed. You will find a routine that will work for you. :wink:

 

[Unarce]

You should probably double check with other sources, just to be safe :wink: .

http://www.seahorse.org/library/article ... Info.shtml

Notable groups that should be avoided:
Tangs, Triggerfish, Groupers, , Eels, Nudibranchs, Filter-feeding Sea Cucumbers, Sea Urchins with sharp spines, Fireworms, Spanish Dancer Flatworms, Fire Corals, Lace Corals, Anemones, Tube Anemones, all Cephalopods (Squids, Octopuses, Cuttlefish, and Nautilus-), Mantis Shrimp, Lobsters, Heliofungia spp. Corals, Cataphyllia spp. Corals, Euphyllia spp. Corals, Goniopora/Alveopora spp. Corals, Galaxea spp. Corals, and Hydnophora spp. Corals.

 

[WRASSER]

good article, a little late but good. i dont even thimk capitive bred were much thought of. I am at work and cant seem to down size the pic, i have a good pic of my sea horse next to the sea anemone.
The article is only half right being with the fish and the sea urchins, IME.

 

[bboyin4lyf]

would you recommend bare bottom or a substrate for this tank? ive heard sea horses are messy due to an inefficent digestion system that leaves alot of organic waste behind. should i go bare bottom to syphon plus it would give me a little bit more water volume or do i go with a 2-3inch crushed fine marble substrate?

 

[WRASSER]

i would say prefrence, i like the sand substrate look, the organic waste, i dont think will be any differnt than having fish. Now the fine crushed marble might be a problem because i dont think the little bugs can live in it, and you want them to help with organics 8)

 

[bboyin4lyf]

yeah. i thought the same but its pretty thin, maybe a little to thick. ill see what else i can find

 

[WRASSER]

Good luck and do more research to help assist you, make sure that is what you want. Sea horses are more of a commitment than fish, you need to feed them two or three times a day, every day. no vacation time, no going away for the weekends unless you know someone you can trust for three times a day. :wink:

 

[bboyin4lyf]

yeah bet seahorses are better with the women :wink: awww there so cute.....etc
nah i rekon it would be mad, look in at the lps and sea some sea horses moving around from rock to rock. sweet as.
any thing else i should know from you from expeirence sea horsing reefers????? they dont turn into sharks on the full moon? :twisted:

 

[bboyin4lyf]

just read that sea horses are likely to be stung by an lps. apparently the ëxoskeleton" doesnt prevent it. this sounds grave for my tank

 

[Unarce]

I actually consulted the seahorse keeper in our club for you, and she agreed that this would come to a sad ending. Apart from the stinging LPS, she also said, "For dwarves the best homes are dead rock, dead sand that have been seeded from bacteria, no tankmates but snails, low flow*so low that the corals would not be happy*, and of course a high concentration of good food."

Hopefully, you can set something up exclusively for them. Maybe a 5g. :wink:

 

[bboyin4lyf]

hey thanks heaps for that! really makes me appreciate these boards when people go out of there way to help! well i guess i'll have to cancel on the seahorses because the lps were allways going to be the main focus of the tank. sigh........ well now i have to come up with another small yet interesting inhabitant. any suggestions?
thanks again!