Looking for any information on housing 2 seahorses

[mikerox29]

Hi,

I am just throwing ideas up in the air at the moment but I would love to have a Saltwater Seahorse tank but don't know where to start.

I am looking for all angles and opinions and know the following about housing seahorses:

- The tank needs to be taller rather than longer
- Seahorses need gentle decorations as they are fragile and easily injured
- I have heard that due to their primitive internal systems that they are especially susceptible to diseases
- Need specialist feeding requirements
- Seahorses are a difficult species to keep in an aquarium

Also, this tank would be an absolute species only tank unless you have some ideas of easy to care for tank mates,
And finally, I am not stuck with sizes of tanks so I am open to all options

Thanks

 

[AquaticBrandon]

Welcome to fishlore!
I have never kept sea horses but they do look awesome. I believe One of our moderators has kept seahorses before. claireputput

 

[mikerox29]

They truly do look awesome haha !

 

[Claire Bear]

HI mikerox29 and welcome!
Seahorses are awesome. Their are many species and some are easier and adapt better than others.
H. erectus is by far the easiest to acclimate and take care of in the home aquarium. They need a minimum size tank of 30 gallons for a pair. You might want a sump to house your live rock as if any hitchhikers/critters make it to their tank, there could be issues.
I love mine and when you buy, only buy captive bred and raised. These should be able to eat frozen Mysis shrimp and do great. If you end up with wild caught, you may have trouble getting them to eat anything besides live foods and they may slowly starve to death.
Good luck and keep us posted!
Gentle flow works great!

 

[mikerox29]

What type of dimensions should the tank have?

 

[TracyLeeAnne]

A minimum of 18-inches tall is the recommendation, 24-inches is better, 30-inches is awesome. The height is needed for their mating rituals. However, 30-inches tall can be physically problematic for you, the keeper, because it's so hard to reach the bottom - important if you want to use micro algaes - like caulerpa. Maintenance is intense so tanks bigger than 55 gallon aren't really recommended; though I love the stability of my 110g provides. BTW, I have a blog about my seahorse tank specs, and about their maintenance if you want a brief summary. Seahorses are pretty cool.

 

[mikerox29]

Would you be able to give me some info about tank maintenance? And why it is so intense?

 

[TracyLeeAnne]

The prime issue with seahorses is they don't have stomachs, so they have to eat a LOT; it's a heavy load on the aquarium system, compound that with how sensitive they are (prone to illness), you're working very hard getting them enough food AND staying ahead of the waste AND keeping water parameters in check. Then the added challenge of keeping them in smaller tanks, where stability becomes more precarious.

I would recommend that you take the free training course from Ocean Rider Seahorse. It's online and Pete, the seahorse guru, is a great mentor - he has kept me from making some horrible mistakes, and is ever ready whenever I have questions.

Here's the link to my recent blog describing what my maint looks like;

Keeping seahorses is not just another world, it's an entirely different universe