Hayden Systems Seahorses Seahorse Care
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We have two books on Amazon, written by Tom Hornsby 'So you want to keep seahorses' and 'So you want to keep dwarf seahorses'. These are written in basic English, easy to read, more like manuals and full of breeder's tips.
Seahorses are very delicate fish and do have special requirements, but once
these requirements are in place you should have many hours enjoyment from them.
There are many books written on their care, and information on the web. I
have a lot of experience, but no formal training.
So all that I have written is from my personal experience.
The first requirement is water quality, as with all marine fish, but seahorses
make a heavy load of waste, so in this case it is far more important.
The water should be tested regularly using a variety of chemical indicators of
water quality. These include:
Make up the salt water with a density of
1.024 and the temperature about 74 degrees Fahrenheit, although some would
question the density of the salt at 1.024 and if the seahorse type comes from an
estuary there may be a reason for taking the salt down to 1.021. Some
seahorses are from temperate zones and require cooler water, so I will just be
covering tropical seahorses for now.
The tank should be easily accessible, as you will need to remove the waste
regularly. I get large droppings from my giant reidi and these need to be
removed manually. Turkey basters are fine for this.
Water changes have to be performed often as the waste is high, so good water
means healthy fish. I have
different filtration in different tanks, but water changes are always top
priority in all types of tanks.
The next is to review what you have put in the tank. For the substrate you can
use live coral sand or dry coral sand or even have bare bottom tanks. Macro
algae is very useful and will anchor well to rocks and sand.
There are a great many algae available in the UK today and in various
colours, Seahorses like to hitch to
the algae and also to large gorgonians.
Corals
It is important to be aware of the delicate skin covering of the seahorse when
adding corals to your tank. Do not put anemones into a seahorse tank as they are
able to sting the seahorse and if the seahorse were to sit on an anemone it
could capture the seahorse and kill it.
Aiptasia anemones will also sting seahorses, as will catalaphyllia,
euphyllia ancora etc. so if the coral has stinging tentacles it is dangerouse to
the seahorse.
Most toadstools and mushrooms are safe, but seahorses are quite happy with rock
and caulerpa, although the feather caulerpa can catch very young ones and they
die in it. Some shrimps can be OK but if they pick at the seahorses this
can irritate them, and they cannot always reach the offender. If you put
in some smaller shrimps the seahorses will eat them.
Hitch hikers
Asterina starfish although tiny, can be a real problem. One had attached
itself to the under side of a tiger tail seahorse, I could not reach the
seahorse and when I could and did remove the starfish, there was an abscess
where it had been irritating (or eating?) the tiger tail. Despite
treatment this fish died. I know of others who have had similar issues
with these stars.
Tank Mates
I keep a copperband in with the seahorses and I move him around the tanks as he
keeps the tanks clear of aiptasia, but he is very big and has a taste for river
shrimp, so is not upset by the moving around in the different tanks. Some
copperbands would not survive this. Look out for a healthy one and see if
it works for you. Another one that is good for clearing aiptasia is the
small tassel file fish and they are ok with seahorses when young.
Slow fish are OK with seahorses, mandarin dragonets, some goby and blennies, but
any fish will compete for the food.
Algae blennies are not good with seahorses they try to scrape the algae from the
seahorses backs which really irritates them.
I personally prefer to keep them on their own, as this avoids competition for
food, and the babies are not eaten by the other fish then.
Lastly is the food.
They love live food, and the little crustations that live in the live rock.
They spend hours watching a piece of live rock and then snatch some small shrimp
from it. So it is good to have a mature tank to put them in.
They require a lot of food spread over the day. So small and often is
great, however they will manage with morning and evening feeds when they are
mature.
The best food for them is frozen Mysis enriched with vitamins etc, and they
really do get good colours from this. I give additional foods to mine.
River shrimp, which I feed enriched mysis, before feeding to the seahorses.
I also feed the river shrimp algae and sometimes flake food, so the seahorses
get a variety of foods via the river shrimp. My Giant Brazilian reidi can
eat three river shrimp in as many minutes, (but no more for quite a while).
The seahorses also love live brine shrimp, but these do not have enough body
protein fat to be good for the seahorses. I have to be careful if I feed
live shrimp that they do not stop eating the frozen mysis, so it is frozen mysis
first then a treat later. Brine shrimp is only offered if they loose their
appetite. It is not good for them, and if you can get live mysis that
would be far better for them if they are off their food.
Feed artemia nauplii to the mysis shrimp to enrich them before feeding to
the ill seahorse.
There is other foods they will eat, but they are happy with mysis and the
occasional river shrimp. Long term, other foods may be necessary for their
longevity, copepods and ampipods, small shrimps, found in reef tanks for
example.
If you want more feeding advice please email (see contact sheet).