Replies
In order to learn all I can before we go out and buy our supplies and seahoreses I joined a newsgroup called [email protected] here are some of the replies I got about care and keeping of Dwarf Seahorses.
Subject: Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
Page Two,
o,,,
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001
From: "Carol Keen"
Siobhan and John, O.k. I am back!
1) Feeding! I love the shrimp from this place! www.brineshrimpdirect.com
They have good shrimp. Even the 70% hatch out works GREAT! :)
2) They should also eat copepods, and you can put in some small red shimp
from Stockly's. http://www.ecosaqua.com/Special_offers.htm
Um, if you are moving brine, a Fish use ONLY turkey baster works really
well! ;)
HOUSING!
1) I have kept them in tanks as large as 20 gallon longs. They don't like
the high 20's, but the longs are fine. 10 gal is great, you can go to 15
gals if you like.
FILTER
Sponge filter! Always! You can use a cell pore sleeve, I sell them. But you
don't want big sucking filters or their food will all be sucked up. And so
will their young, and so on and so forth, all sucked up! :0
I would get for a 10 gallon tank the Oxi-Bio filter.
Get it here:
www.petwarehouse.com
item #960260
PLANTS
That would be alage actually, but it looks like a plant! :) Any of the
caulerpa's other than Mermaid's cup are seahorse safe. You can also have sea
lettuce, and sea fans, and shaving brushes.
OTHER tank mates......
The only ones I know are safe I sell! ;)
The dragonett that I don't have a solid scientific name for, but it can't
hurt the horses.......any of them, and also eats baby brine.
And a small grey hermit crab we call Greyletts. All the other crabs got
aggressive, but not this one.
Oh My! The rest of the list!
#28 by Sea Lab. Get that from Pet Warhouse.
Cell Pore, from me?
Coral Life Invertabrate Vitamin formula
Coral Life Iodine
Tropic-Marin's Bio-Calcium
Those are my "additives" the only things I add to the tank besides the
Instant Ocean mix. ( Not counting when you use a medication. That is
different.)
O.k That is enough for you now! I don't want to drown you!
Carol :)
From: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001
Subject: Re: [Ultimate_Seahorse] Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
Dear Siobhan and John:
Here is some background info on dwarf seahorses you may find interesting:
Scientific name: Hippocampus zosterae
Common names: Dwarf Seahorse, Pygmy or Pigmy Seahorse (USA), Sea Pony (USA).
Gestation Period: about 10 days, depending on temperature and diet.
Breeding Habits: easiest of all seahorses to breed in captivity but brood
size is extremely small, often in the single digits. The breeding season in
the wild extends from mid-February to late October. Three generations are
normally produced during that period. This species stops breeding when the
period between sunrise and sunset is less than 11 hours, and reproduces best
when the days are longer than 12 hours, so be sure to provide a photoperiod
with at least 12 hours of light daily. Since courtship is conducted
primarily in the twilight hours just after dawn, a cycle of 3 hours
half-light/10 hours full light/3 hours half-light/8 hours darkness is highly
recommended. The half-light periods can be easily furnished by positioning a
room lamp a short distance away from the breeding tank, and will provide your
seahorses with a simulated dusk and dawn.
Ease of Rearing: very easy to raise. Fry are well developed at birth and can
usually accept newly hatched brine shrimp as their first food. Newborn
pygmies orient to the substrate at birth and seek out hitching posts
immediately--no floaters or surface huggers. Many hobbyists have closed the
life cycle on this species. The fry double in size after 17 days and
typically reach sexual maturity at the age of three months.
Diet: thrives on enriched brine shrimp (Artemia) of all stages from
newly-hatched to adult, supplemented liberally with copepods, plankton,
rotifers and the larval stages of Gammarus, Mysids, ghost shrimp and many
other shrimp. Too small to accept frozen foods, although minced mysids may
be a possibility.
Range: Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Keys, Cuba, the Bahamas and Bermuda.
Habitat: H. zosterae is confined to shallow seagrass beds, primarily Zosterae
beds and inshore drifting vegetation (Sargassum).
Diseases: nematodes can be a chronic problem with wild-caught dwarves and
pigmy seahorses keepers are often plagued by hordes of hydroids and Aiptasia
anemones--colonial stinging organisms that kill zosterae babies and injury
the adult seahorses, which often subsequently succumb to secondary infections
(snout rot; tail rot). These cnidarians often explode to plague proportions
in dwarf tanks because they thrive on the newly hatched brine shrimp that's
fed to the ponies. To control these pests, new arrivals should be given a
freshwater dip followed by a formalin bath, and then quarantined for a
minimum of two weeks before they are introduced to your display tank.
Notes: Providing you can keep your dwarf setup hydroid free-very problematic
these days--this is one species that may enjoy a greater life span in
captivity than the wild. In nature, very few dwarf seahorses survive their
first winter; none are known to overwinter twice. A detailed field study
marked all the individuals of a Cedar Key population and followed them
closely for a period of several years. The study revealed that the Cedar Key
dwarves reached sexual maturity within 3 months, with few surviving for more
than a year. No 2 year-old specimens were ever observed. (Strawn, K. 1958.
Life history of the pigmy seahorse Hippocampus zosterae Jordan and Gilbert,
at Cedar Key, Florida. Copeia, 1958:16-22.) Thus, their natural life span is
believed to be about one year in the ocean. In captivity, experienced
hobbyists have kept them for 2-3+ years.
According to the literature, zosterae is a monogamous species that forms
lasting pair bonds, but anyone who has ever kept dwarf seahorses knows this
is most decidedly untrue, at least in captivity. In the aquarium, they are
as promiscuous as they are prolific! In fact, dwarves do best when kept in
groups, and many breeders recommend keeping at least 5 pairs together. For
instance, pet dealers must occasionally crowd large numbers of fish in
cramped quarters due to a lack of space, including dwarf seahorses. Robert
Straughan was once forced to keep 300 H. zosterae in a 10-gallon tank in such
a situation, and was pleasantly surprised to find that over 100 of them
managed to pair up and mate nonetheless.
Dwarf seahorses are most common in bays during periods of high salinity.
Hurricanes and winter storms take a heavy toll on these tiny seahorses in the
wild.
Because of its small size and limited swimming ability, Hippocampus zosterae
is very prone to geographic isolation, and the Gulf populations differ
noticeably in appearance from those in the Florida Keys. These differences
extend to ring counts and body segments, and it is unclear whether this
represents normal clinal variation or whether speciation is taking place.
Some researchers are prepared to elevate the Gulf dwarves to a new species;
others feel they should be considered a subspecies or new race of zosterae.
Hobbyists beware--these seahorses are truly tiny: their maximum size is about
1.75 inches, half of which is tail. To me, their diminutive dimensions are a
source of endless delight; I find them quaint and charming in the extreme.
But many hobbyists who are unfamiliar with zosterae are disappointed to
discover that the dwarf seahorses they ordered through the mail are literally
dime-sized fishes.
Hippocampus zosterae is extremely variable in coloration. Its normal
pattern is a mottled fawn color, but green, yellow, black, brown, and pearly
ponies are fairly common, and saddles, blotches, ringed-tails, and pinto- and
bumblebee-like patterns are seen from time to time. Many specimens are
marked with white flecks like splashes of paint. Some of the color morphs of
zosterae are very striking and could probably be developed into pure strains
through a careful selective breeding program.
Dwarf seahorses are often adorned with numerous cirri in the wild, giving
them a shaggy or weedy appearance, but these fancy skin filaments are
typically lost within a short period of time in captivity.
This is the ideal seahorse for beginners or aquarists with a limited
amount of space or resources to devote to their hobby.
Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna
Subject: Re: Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001
From: "Carol Keen"
Hi Siobhan, ( And John!)
I will answer you letter in several parts!
This is the first one! This is the list I pass out of things you need to
start up the tank.
Starting a satlwater tank:
Things you need:
Instant Ocean Salt Mix
Aquarium Systems Sea Test hydrometer. ( Plastic flat box!)
Ph test kit
Nitrate tests
Nitrite Tests ( I use Aquarmarine's test strips, as they are accurate, and
work great! I do sell them as well, in kits. I am out of stock at the moment
though! :0 )
Stick on movable Themometer or a themometer of your choice
Declorinator I remcomend Safe by Sea Chem
Heater for most tanks, I use Visa-Therm heaters. Tronic is suppose to be
good. The heater must be submersible.
Substrate, I use crushed shell.
More in just a min!
Carol :)
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:05:30 -0000
From: [email protected]
Hi John and Siobhan,
Welcome. Glad you are doing your research. I was like you and
spent months researching my options before starting. Having both
large and small seahorses, but I find the dwarves to be really fun
and adorable! I presently have 10 adult dwarves, 3 two-week old
babies and 10 3-day old babies! I agree with Lisa in that there are
many ways of doing things, so I will also tell you what works for me
and what I do.
1. Feeding: I use San Francisco Bay brand. They are generally
smaller than the other varieties so the dwarves, especially the
babies, can eat them better. I decap my eggs and use a soda bottle
type hatchery for hatching out the eggs. Used to use the little
black box, but had better hatch rates with the other hatchery. I now
use the box to separate my hatched/unhatched eggs. You can feed the
dwarves newly hatched BBS or enriched (using Vibrance, Selcon, HUFA,
etc.) BBS. I enrich my BBS twice a week. I simply remove the BBS
(baby brine shrimp) with a net, rinse (to remove bacteria) and feed.
Dwarves can also eat enriched adult BS, copepods and rotifers.
2. Housing: I have a 5 1/2 gallon tank. Started with an Eclipse 3,
but found it was too hard to maintain water quality and temperature.
The 5 1/2 is easier, but still needs frequent water changes. I
change mine weekly. I have black sand for the substrate. I switched
from crushed coral and really like it. It makes the dwarves,
especially the babies, more noticeable. The 10 gallon would probably
be the largest I would recommend. If you choose to use a 10, you
should have a minimum of 12 dwarves.
3. Filter: I have a Whisper Junior power filter and a Oxygen Plus
sponge filter. My power filter is modified with a sponge over the
intake and the flow knob is set at the lowest setting. Even with the
sponge over the intake, it still sucks up the BBS. I just run it
overnight and for backup (tank cleanings, etc.) I also have cell-
pore rox in the tank. Carol can tell you all about those!
4. Plants: I have lots of fine-leaved, grassy plastic plants and a
few live plants. My dwarves prefer the fake plants.
5. Tankmates: I have red shrimp, tiny snails and one tiny blue-
legged hermit crab with my seahorses. I keep a very close eye on
them and will remove any that look agressive, but so far everyone
gets along great.
6. I use Instant Ocean salt(SG=1.019), normal output fluorescent
lighting (10-12 hrs/day), a submersible 50w heater (temp=72-74), and
do not have any live rock/live sand (only cell-pore). Additives I
use are: Seachem Marine Buffer (ph=8.2-8.3), Sealab No. 28, Coralife
marine iodine, and Coralife Invert. vitamin formula and TM Bio-
calcium.
Good luck with your set-up.
HTH,
Trisha
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001
From: [email protected]
I have a dwarf keeping website that you might find useful here:
http://home.pacbell.net/powerfx/
Robert.
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
Siobhan and John,
Let me start by saying this is what I use and I do. Everyone has
his/her way.
I use San Fransico brand eggs. I use the little hatcher by San Fran.
I use my tank water in the hatcher to hatch brine. San Fran. brine
are easy to raise. If fed to the dwarfs when newly hatches it will
provide excellent nutrition. When shrimp become adults, I like to use
enrichment to feed them (Vibrance, selcon, etc.). Brine Shrimp Direct
is a great source to buy your eggs. I also use copepods as a
secondary food. These are found on live rock. I do culture some to
feed later.
I use a turkey baster to move my brine shrimp.
I like to decapsulate my eggs so I don't have to mess with the
shells. Go to: http://www.sfbb.com/technical_info/decapsulation.html
this will give you a step by step.
I have a 10 gal. set up for them. 10gal. can hold up to 50 dwarfs.
IMO a 2 gal is hard to keep water quality. I've used a 5 1/2 gal. and
you do have to keep up with the house cleaning. One of our members
use the 2 gal. and it work fine too. Yes, the dwarfs do need to find
their food. IMO..I wouldn't use anything larger then a 10 gal.
This is what is in my 10 gal. Substrate: 1/2" of crushed shell/coral
(no under gravel filter), Sponge filter, fake hitching posts, a few
live plants, a few piece of live rock as well as cell-pore rock,
Whisper power filter and heater. Carol just uses a sponge filter for
filtration (no power filter).
I put a filter bag over the intake of the Whisper Power filter.
It work great. No brine or copepods are sucked up or fry.
Caluerpa is what I have in my aquarium. Some need strong light. Do
your research on this before you spend your money.
I do run snails but I do not trust the other things with the
dwarfs. I do run peppermint shrimp with my bigger seahorses. I do not
trust the hermit crab...so I do not use them at this time. Maybe
someone else can advise you on this.
I use Instant Ocean salt. Additives: SeaLab #28, Invertebrate
Vitamin Formula and Marine Iodine Supplement.
Carol will you please list the medicines that a seahorses keeper
should have on hand? It is extremely important that you have these.
If your horses become sick you will have everything at hand to start
treatment right away.
No special lighting is required for the horses.
I like to keep my aqurium temp. at 74 degress.
HTH, Lisa
[email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001
Subject: dwarfs
Siobhan, when you get your dwarfs (5 gallon tank will be plenty big
enough and as long as it's cycled should be stable) please don't let
any of the water they come in be introduced to your tank.
I ordered dwarfs in september and had 8 adults who started reproducing and I
saw babies everywhere in the caulerpa. Then I started having trouble
seeing the babies as the plants were getting "fuzzy roots". Then I
realized that these fuzzies were on my cell pore and were not roots
but the dreaded HYDROIDS and since then all the dwarfs are dead and
some of the baby pipefish that were in there. Carol has something to
cure the tank but it's too late for my dwarfs.
I now also use "Net Soak" (my LFS had "Pro-Net") that I soak my nets and turkey baster in just in case--I don't want to spread the hydroids to other tanks.
Also, you do not want to change all the water or vacuume all the
substrate at each water change. For the smaller tanks I usually
changed 50% water change and only vacumed the surface of the bottom
(that's where the beneficial bacteria grow).I had to do that a couple
of times a week at first then went to once per week.(My bio-load
overworked the amt of good bacteria that had grown during the cycle --
I had too many living creatures in too small of a space-- 3 gallon
tank with population explosion!) Snails and crabs eat the solid waste
and left over food for you so having some of those will be useful) My
hermit crabs (small)did not mess with the dwarfs at all. HTH,Sherry
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001
From: "ryoung"
Subject: RE: Basic Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
1. FEEDING: what is the best brand of shrimp to feed them? I see a few places selling brine shrimp eggs.. what else can they (and should
they) eat? What do they need to make a balanced diet? What else do they need?
I have seen it mentioned raising the shrimp in a different tank.. how do you move the shrimp from one tank to another safely without injuring the shrimp before the seahorse can get them?
[ryoung] I have
homemade brine shrimp hatchers and the black box hatcher from San Francisco
Brine Shrimp company which works well. I decapsulate some and hatch some
without decaping. I think it is in the bookmark section of the group on how
to decap but in my experience it is very easy to over do with the process.
Whatever you do, don't hatch eggs in the same tank with the dwarfs- it fouls
the water and the shell will kill if eaten. I use a turkey baster and brine
shrimp net to harvest the hatched shrimp and then feed to the dwarfs. If
from the decapsulated (and sterilized) I don't have to rinse in fresh salt
water but I do rinse in fresh salt water if they weren't decapsulated. I
have one of my hatchers in the kitchen window and one hatcher has a small
heater to keep them hatching on a regular basis.
2. HOUSING: What size of tank is suggested? I always like to get the
biggest and best for everyone (I have a 33 gallon tank for my mouse)..
however I read that dwarfs need a smaller tank so they can find thier
food easily.. I was thinking about 10 gallons but many places I see
them saying 2-5 gallon tanks.. whats a good size? (we likely will
start out with 4-8 seahorses.)
[ryoung] I have 8 adult dwarf horses and 1
adult pipefish, at least a dozen baby horses and 20 baby pipefish in a 3 gal
Eclipse (all the babies have come since I put the adults in the tank,
otherwise I would have started with a 6 gal Eclipse because I've been doing
lots of water changes because of probably overfeeding (I tend to over feed
rather than underfeed) vs overcrowding vs inadequate biological filter. I
thought the tank was cycled but it may not have been.
3. FILTER: What filter do you suggest? I found very unclear infomation
about this suggesting some would filter out the food and possibly even
the seahorse or seahorse fry!!
[ryoung] The Eclipse filter is simple with
a biowheel (wet/dry) and put a sponge over the uptake strainer. Another
sponge filter in the tank adds more biological filtering and I really like
the "Biofoam" by Hagen. If I didn't like the Eclipse Acrylic aquarium
tank, light and filter altogether) I would use the Hagen double sponge
Biofoam in a regular small aquarium (5 gal minimum). 10 gallon may work if
ya have a light source directed to the bottom of the tank where the baby
brine shrimp will go toward the light by nature. When I feed in the morning
and at night I turn the hood light off and have a fluorescent tube
(Glo-stick at Home Depot) behind the tank that I plug in just at feeding
time. The foam sponge over the uptake strainer will keep babies from being
sucked into the filter.
4. PLANTS: What type of plants do you suggest? I heard that they like
caluerpa.. but what others would you suggest?
[ryoung] Mermaids brush, sea
fans but there are a lot of different kinds of macroalgae to chose from.
5. Other animals: What types of animals do you have with your
seahorses? I been looking into "clean-up crews" and have been
suggested a few types of snails, shrimp, hermit crabs.. but wish to
make sure that these animals will not harm or eat up all their
food.
[ryoung] Snails are a must, small hermits are not bothering mine but
shrimp and larger crabs may eat babies, other fish may too. You will be
surprised how facinating the dwarfs are, you will not need any other fish to
add to the entertainment.
6. What other products would you suggest for a healthy tank (ie: salt
mixture, lighting, heating, rocks, sand....etc)
[ryoung] Instant Ocean is a
good mix, I buy R/O water from my local fish store that is already mixed but
have distilled water and IO on hand in case of emergency.
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.. we wanted to set
up the tank with plants and "clean up crews" before we got the
seahorses and make sure we can raise brine shrip properly to feed
them.
In a few years we do wish to get some of the larger seahorses but for
now wish to stick with Dwarfs.
[ryoung]
Good luck with the dwarfs! I think they are by far the easiest to keep as long as the brine shrimp hatch. I used to give up on the eggs that didn't hatch by 3 days and throw them away but have since learned that it may take up to 2 weeks for some to hatch. If you want to decapsulate they will have more nutritional value but again if over processed with be of no use. Brine Shrimp Direct sells Golden Pearls engineered decapsulated brine shrimp that do not hatch but my dwarfs will not eat them. When you do decide to keep the larger horses you might
consider "tank raised". They are more expensive but will eat frozen foods
and will save you a lot of heartache in the longrun. I have friends in the
Ultimate_Seahorse group who train wild caught (WC) horses to eat frozen
mysis but mine have all died before eating frozen (and I tried ghost shrimp,
adult brine shrimp, and all sorts of other live food to keep them alive).
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001
Subject: dwarfs
From: "Kristin Celeste Gallo"
Check out www.seahorse.org. It has a forum especially for dwarfs and you can
find all the information you will need.
http://www.seahorse.org/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi
Briefly : Brine Shrimp Direct is on
line and sells high quality eggs. Decapping decreases your chances of
getting hydroids (little tiny jellies that are VERY difficult to get rid
of). Tank should be around 5 gallons. Bigger than that makes it harder for
them to get enough of the shrimp. You will need to hatch about every other
day. Hatching only takes about 24 hours but you don't want to have one batch
fail and get caught without enough left over from the last batch. Babies can
eat the same thing as adults and don't need to be moved to another tank.
Don't worry about killing the brine shrimp. They are tough.
Always rinse before putting them into the horse tank and be sure to rinse
with fresh water NOT salt water (or you will not accomplish what the rinse
is for...getting rid of salt water parasites. Fresh water will kill them.
Salt water will not.). A turkey baster works well to pull them out of the
hatcher. Then
squeeze them out into a brine shrimp net and rinse in fresh water. Check at
seahorse.org for details of decapsulation.
Filter: An air driven sponge filter (like the ones made for fish fry) uses a
small air pump, airline tubing and a specially designed sponge and will
allow you to keep adults and babies safe. They cost about $8 but not all
stores sell them. Several stores around me have them but I'm sure you can
find one on line if you cant get them locally.
Check out www.seahorse.org. It is a very friendly and educated group. They
are also very quick to reply to posts.
Kristin
P.S. (If you've already done salt please ignore this.....)If you haven't
done salt water aquariums before I would try a small tank with some damsels
for a while before trying seahorses. Damsels are tough and can survive the
first year ups and downs as you learn how to keep the tank balanced and
healthy. Then when you're confident in the world of salt you can launch into
the additional issues of seahorses. (Be sure to return the damsels to a fish
store or have a different tank for the horses. Dwarfs really shouldn't have
any tank mates other than snails. Absolutely no other fish and even the
small hermit crabs can cause problems for the horses. Nassarius snails are
great. They're cute and keep the tank clean.) Take Care :)
MY ORIGINAL MESSAGE
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001
Subject: Basic Questions (dwarf seahorses)-feeding, tank size ...etc!
Hi everyone,
My fiancee (John) and I are planing to get some dwarf seahorses
(Hippocampus zosterae)..
right now we are at the research stage so we have lots of questions..
we haven't started yet, or bought a tank as we want to make sure that
everything is right first before we get the little guys.. here are
some questions I have:
1. FEEDING: what is the best brand of shrimp to feed them? I see a few
places selling brine shrimp eggs.. what else can they (and should
they) eat? What do they need to make a balanced diet? What else do
they need?
I have seen it mentioned raising the shrimp in a different tank.. how
do you move the shrimp from one tank to another safely without
injuring the shrimp before the seahorse can get them?
2. HOUSING: What size of tank is suggested? I always like to get the
biggest and best for everyone (I have a 33 gallon tank for my mouse)..
however I read that dwarfs need a smaller tank so they can find thier
food easily.. I was thinking about 10 gallons but many places I see
them saying 2-5 gallon tanks.. whats a good size? (we likely will
start out with 4-8 seahorses.)
3. FILTER: What filter do you suggest? I found very unclear infomation
about this suggesting some would filter out the food and possibly even
the seahorse or seahorse fry!!
4. PLANTS: What type of plants do you suggest? I heard that they like
caluerpa.. but what others would you suggest?
5. Other animals: What types of animals do you have with your
seahorses? I been looking into "clean-up crews" and have been
suggested a few types of snails, shrimp, hermit crabs.. but wish to
make sure that these animals will not harm or eat up all their food.
6. What other products would you suggest for a healthy tank (ie: salt
mixture, lighting, heating, rocks, sand....etc)
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.. we wanted to set
up the tank with plants and "clean up crews" before we got the
seahorses and make sure we can raise brine shrip properly to feed
them.
In a few years we do wish to get some of the larger seahorses but for
now wish to stick with Dwarfs.
Siobhan and John
From: "S A Seahorse"
To:
Subject: Re: purchase info for "A Stable Environment for your Seahorse Stable"
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001
Hi,
The book is available in the dry goods section of Flying Fish Express
www.ffexpress.com
Happy Seahorse Keeping
Tracy Warland
TRAcy & daVID Warland
South Australian Seahorse Marine Services
[email protected]
www.saseahorse.com
Commercial Seahorse Breeders for the World Aquaria
For more information on Seahorses checkout
www.seahorse.org
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