hippocampus erectus

[heathlindner25]

I would like to know the general consensus on keeping 2 females instead of a pair, in a 20 gallon tall?

[heathlindner25]

More info, The 20 tall is 7 years old. Set up with live rock and sand and used as a quarantine tank for many years.... never used meds in it. Copepods and amphipods are crawling the walls throughout the system.
I know erectus love ghost shrimp, and I am willing to buy them daily..... thoughts and opinions are welcome

[redhorse]

Two females would be great if your not planning on having fry. Where would you be getting the Erectus because most that are CB don't need live ghost shrimp and should be eating frozen foods.
Usually at LFS they will sell wild caught that mainly eat live food but sometimes can be trained to eat frozen.
CB and WC are also similar in price so I would get something with some knowledge of the history (CB). JMO
There are also steps for WC that are needed to rid them of the nasty parasites, pathogens and other things found in the oceans (flatworms, water lice to name a few that I have seen at LFS).

[rayjay]

No, I agree, no problem with keeping a pair of females together. (unless a female changes to a male then you have a legit pair)
Your biggest problem is that a 20 tall is NOT a large enough tank for two seahorses. Minimum size would be 29g for just one pair.
Smaller tanks are very difficult to maintain water quality due to the eating habits of the seahorses which even with the larger tank need much better husbandry and more and larger water changes than you would need for a reef tank. Insufficient water quality means bacterial infections down the road. Test kits available to use cannot tell us when the water is going to promote the bacteria to plague proportions so we need preventive maintenance.

Here in Canada we no longer get wild caught, and I think in the US it is getting like that as well in most areas. My experience was the wild caught were the cheapest sold with imported tank raised being a bit more expensive, but true captive bred are definitely the most expensive.
Most common seahorses now are basically net pen raised or raised in large cement tanks where untreated ocean water is the source of parasites they get introduced to and may cause problems down the road.
Best to buy is true captive bred and directly from the breeder is best.
If a store buys captive bred and then places them in their store system hooked to other fish in other tanks, then the CB will now be exposed to parasites from the other fish which too might cause problems down the road.
These "tank raised imports" are trained onto frozen mysis just like the true captive bred, and it's not unknown for a store to claim the tank raised to be true captive bred so be aware. Many times the store doesn't even know the difference.

[heathlindner25]

Thanks guys I appreciate all your info. I've been keeping acros for the last 5 years so I know a bit about water quality and chemistry, if you guys say keeping the water pristine will be difficult in a 20 tall... I'm up for the challenge..lol

[rayjay]

Originally Posted by heathlindner25

if you guys say keeping the water pristine will be difficult in a 20 tall... I'm up for the challenge..lol

IMO, YOU may be up for the challenge, but it's the seahorses that pay the price when they become afflicted sometime down the road in your endevour.
There is NO similarity to water quality required for your acros and that needed for best chances of success in keeping seahorses.
While it can and has been done, failure has happened many more times.
For it to succeed, I believe it takes the right combination of excessive tank maintenance and larger more frequent water changes coupled with the luck to have seahorses that are more tolerant of the bacteria problem seahorses unfortunately fall victim to.
Please do more research into this hobby before you attempt it in a too small tank.

[heathlindner25]

Gotcha

[rayjay]

This is my page on seahorse keeping.

This is a great discourse on pledosophy's take on bacteria in a thread about temperature but IMO temperature and volume are connected regarding water quality needs.
See post #5 at http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2274878
From post #1 in that thread comes http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/temperature.html

If you haven't already read these, I think they will help you in your seahorse keeping challenge.

[heathlindner25]

Appreciate all the info