Seahorses? Eclipse tanks?

[jerseydiablo]

I have a 20 gal high eclipse thats been cycling for about 3 weeks now, I'd like to get some dwarf seahorses for it, probably 10-20 dwarves

I'm going to section off a part of the tank for a small refugium in there
right now, all thats in there is about 20lbs of LR, a DSB, 1 small powerhead, a small fission nano skimmer, & the filter that comes with the hood to the eclipse with the stock lighting.

are there any power compacts that will fit the hood of the eclipse?

are the small fission skimmers any good? or should i replace it with something else? there's not much room with the way the hood is but I guess I could cut a section out on the back where the plugs go out/in the tank to fit a skimmer on there, I do have a seaclone 100 in the closet that would probably fit alright, I know they aren't very good but I just don't wanna have to spend any more money right now

I'm also guessing I could just cut the entire back side of the hood, take out the filter & light thats there, and replace with a powr compact, a penguin 350, & the seaclone if I wanted to as well

just not sure what I should do

I've been reading up over at seahorse.org but just registered and need to wait to be able to post, figured I'd check here while i wait to be approved to post over there


also, I know they need low temps, like 74 or so, do I need a heater in there? the room it's in is my daughters room and it stays fairly the same temp in the winter, anywhere from 70 to 80 degrees or so in the room

 

[andylee]

Feeding dwarves in a 20 gallon is going to be tough. You need to acheive a certain density of live baby brine shrimp (freshly hatched). This can be difficult in a large tank like yours. You probably don't need a skimmer as long as you do regular water changes. Too much water motion is going to blow your little seahorses all over the place, so I'd go easy with the powerhead.

 

[jerseydiablo]

the powerhead is very small, not even sure of the name but it doesn't have much power at all

& I am planning on "cutting" the tank down in size by placing a piece of acrylic in there to setup an in-tank refuge, prob a quarter size of the tank, leaving 3/4's for living area for the dwarves

so no skimmer but lots of water changes (like twice a week) even if i wanted to add some non-stinging corals later on?

 

[prattreef]

Diablo,
I just wanted to reiterate that all dwarfs will eat is newly hatched babybrine. Are you prepared to provide this? I agree no skimmer and all intakes to pumps etc must be well covered with a fine mesh. I'd recommend a large clump of Chaetomorpha and not much else. Randy

 

[jerseydiablo]

Tropiquarium is 10 mins down the road & they have brine shrimp all the time, a dollar for probably 200 or so in a small container, feeding won't be a problem

 

[andylee]

baby brine, right? The ones that look like pinheads, not the large swimming ones.

 

[prattreef]

The adult brine shrimp commonly sold at LFS will not do. They are far too large for Dwarfs. You will need to hatch them out yourself which is not difficult, but it is time consuming and a never ending committment.

 

[jerseydiablo]

tropiquarium sells baby brines

 

[scarf_ace1981]

good luck my friend. dwarf ponies are too much hassle for me. too many precautions and too much maintanance. i prefer larger ponies. a place you may wantto check out is seahorse.org(discussion forum) they can help you w/ all your questions.

as for light mods to the hood you should check out nano-reef.com, they have tons of modded nanos w/ tons of pics

 

[andylee]

Jersey, Prattreef and I are not picking on you (I'm getting a mental image of the two of us pummelling you until you go down!). . Well, I'm not, anyway.

Just want you to be aware of what you're getting into. The baby brine have to be freshly hatched or they lose the nutrients in their yolk sacs. I have had a few large "Pixies" from OceanRider that snicked an occasional adult brine shrimp, but I don't think they do much nutritionally. These were also much larger seahorses than wild-caught dwarves.

You will basically need to be able to generate a "cloud" of baby brine shrimp several times a day. It is very difficult to do that in a large volume tank. I had trouble enough in a 3 gallon eclipse.

Live rock can also be a problem with dwarves because even small predators (hydroids) can sting and kill babies and even adults.

I hope I'm helping you and not just bashing you!

Andy

 

[Mak]

Sorry to bug in to this thread.. So andy, what's the best size tank for seahorse? Cuz I am reading alot info. about it, and I am interest in setting up a seahorse tank.. The Tank that I am interest is Finnex M-30.

 

[andylee]

What kind of seahorse? For the large breeds, I don't think it much matters; as usual, the larger the better. Taller is better than longer. For dwarves, smaller tends to be better because of feeding requirements that I've previously mentioned.

Aside from dwarves, I would definitely recommend tank-raised to avoid the notorious feeding problems.

Isn't an M-30 a firecracker?

 

[Mak]

Hahah, no the M-30 is Finnex M-30 Tank
http://www.finnex.net/pages/product/MTank.html

Hmm, I don't know what seahorse yet. I am still trying to get more infor about it.. But I know I want the tank raise one, this way is easy feeding, I know they are train to eat frozen food.. Have to get more info before I went ahead to purchase them. Don't want to kill these little creature.. Any place recommend to get tank raise seahorse?? And around how much are they? I see some of them goes from $150 and up...

 

[andylee]

I have ordered them from Oceanrider (Oceanrider.com) a few times. They are kind of pioneers in the captive-bred seahorse world. Nice seahorses. Are somewhat pricey, but probably worth it over wild-caught. Shipping adds a bit, as they are in Hawaii. they have some decent specials that include shipping.

Captive-bred are only rarely available at LFS. I got mine years ago from a place in Stamford, CT (emperors, still doing well about 4 years later). They are in an 11-gallon tall tank on my desk at work.

I keep thinking about setting up a 46 gallon hex that's in my garage for a couple pair of large horses, but I'm too lazy and my wife might kill me.

 

[Domboski]

I have dwarves and they eat cyclopeeze along with the baby brine shrimp. Reproduce like crazy!!!

Jersey, check out this link, this product is awesome at popping out BBS all of the time: http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html

I think a 20 may be a bit big because you will need to constantly hatch eggs to keep the density in the tank high. With the dish above, you will have tons of BBS and it easy to skim them out allowing some of the late hatchers to pop out before you change the water. You will probably need to hatch eggs every three days with the size tank you are using (each hatching will give you about two days of BBS for 20 dwarves). Also keep in mind that even new BBS lose their yolk sack after just a few days.

Even though I said my Dwarves eat Cyclopeeze, that doesn't count the fry. They are way too small to eat the Cyclopeeze. You will have to have BBS.

 

[jerseydiablo]

wasn't taking offense to what anyone was saying, my quick reponse earlier was just because i was headin out the door

anyways, i called the LFS & asked about baby brines, the girl said yes, went down there and thats not the case, they only have live adults & frozen baby brines, they also recommended Cyclopeeze as well

so domboski, that dish would hatch them in the tank the dwarves would be in?

the LFS showed me a hang on hatchery but said the water needed to be around 82-85 degrees at least, reading up on the dwarves they need around 74 so that wouldn't do

would the same temp be needed with that hatchery dish as well?


if regular horses are much easier to keep then the dwarves I might just go with something else then, haven't made up my mind just yet, the tanks gonna be in my daughters room & i really can't be rumbling around in there after say 8pm or so when she goes to bed, so if the dwarves are that big a pain I'll prob just go with easier ones to keep

thanks everyone for your input

 

[andylee]

Dwarves are definitely more difficult than captive bred large seahorses (usually erectus).
Captive-breds will eat frozen food, which is a huge advantage.
Dwarves will generally also only eat frozen food, but can live on fresh baby brine.
Wild-caught large seahorses will usually only eat live food. Adult brine shrimp will be eaten, but don't have much nutritional value, so the horses tend to waste away. Grass shrimp, red shrimp, small commercial shrimp will be eaten, but are expensive and can't always be obtained.
So I would recommend a pair of captive-bred, large breed seahorses. They would do well in a 20 tall.

 

[Domboski]

I agree with andylee.

The dish I gave you the link to hatches the eggs seperately of the tank. It has a mini strainer that you pull and dip into the tank. It is awesome! Keeping Dwarves can be rewarding but time consuming. The dish I gave you the link to makes things a million times easier.