Dwarf Info Needed

[oneoffcustom]

Hey all,

i entertained starting a 46 gallon bowfront for a pair of erectus, but ended up taking down and just buying a biocube 29g. I have started up a 2.5 gallon nano with a 3 gallon sump tank, and about 10lbs of live rock between sump and display. The display has less rock as room is very tight, but still have a good looking amount. I have very little flow which is what i heard is best. I am very interested in a pair of dwarf seahorses. I am wondering will this tank be big enough, and what are some good pointers, such as food, plants, ect. I plan on dosing my tank with copepods as well. In my tank i will probably do some zoanthids and maybe some mushrooms. Please respond as i would love keepers input.

[oneoffcustom]

wow, no one knows?

[Clownfish29]

Dwarfs are very small, and in a 3 gallon tank, you could keep many. Probably 12- 15. They don't go hunting for their food, they let it come to them, so to feed them, you need to feed a great amount of baby live brine shrimp or live copepods. The more seahorses, the more food will be eaten and not wasted. You must culture live food for them, and feed them atleast twice a day. In my dwarf tank, i kept caulerpa algae. It's great, it grows like a weed, even under low lights. Low flow is good, that is what they need. THe corals you plan to keep are good, don;t get any stinging corals. With the live rock, make sure there are no things to harm the dwarfs, like aiptasia or hydroids. The seahorses must be kept alone, they are very easy to be outcompeted for food, although there area a FEW tankmates, such as snails and very small , peacful shrimps.( not too small, they will eat them!) Keep up the water quality in a tank that small, be very dilligent. If you folllow this and feed your dwarfs properly, then soon they will be breeding and you will have so many horses you won;t know what to do with em! I have heard of people keeping as many as 50 in tanks that small. The best of luck with them, they really are neat little guys.

[Jillyfish]

I would not use live rock at all. Adult amphipods can kill dwarf seahorses, especially the fry. Hydroids can show up latter on also if you use live rock. I even fresh water dip my caulerpa. Some people say it will kill the caulerpa, but I have not had this problem.

One pair of dwarves is not a good idea. Like Clownfish said, the more you have the more they clean up the brine shrimp. You can't really feed less with fewer seahorses because seahorses sit and wait mostly for food to come near them. You have to have a high enough concentration of food to go all over the tank.

I have about 12 in a 4.5 gallon. I think this is too few.

I love them and find them easier to care for and feed than larger horses, but that is just me.

You will also need decapped brine shrimp eggs. You can do it yourself with bleach, but I find it to be a pain. I supplement the tank water a few times a week with phyto plankton. They drink it in the water, and I just think it makes them healthier.

Any guests I have at my house are very underwhelmed by my seahorse tank, in fact my daughter took them to school and the class was more impressed by the leaves she brought in. They are very very tiny.

[suzimcmullen]

I have 19 dwarf horses for now

I have 11 babies that are 2 weeks 5 days old. I have 3 babies that are 7 weeks 4 days old. I have that was born in the tank and is now 13 weeks 5 days old. So that leaves me with the 4 adults that could be any age.

I have only had one fry death in the last 3 months and that is remarkable in the world of dwarf seahorses.

There are a few things I have figured out. Live rock is needed because it aids in the filtration and impeccable tank parameters is necessary. You can treat the rock and tank with the horses in the tank. I use panacur. This is important. It comes from Dr. Fosters with 3 pouches. The powder will last a super long time. I take such as mall pinch that it's no more than 20 tiny little granules at the most. I just drop it in the tank 2-3 days per week for a couple weeks. Then after that I drop it in maybe once per week. This allows me to use all the same equipment in the water changes etc and not keep giving myself another hydroid outbreak.

I have been using just one of these packets for 2 months. I have not had any snail deaths because I've used such a small amount. My hydroids are a thing of the past.

Amphipods are not the problem some people think they are. I have had lots of them in my tank and I've never seen them bother even the tiniest of fry. I've seen them crawl around them, touch them as they move by. I'm sure they could, but they are really not interested. Live prey isn't exactly their style. Whenever I can I suction them up with a turkey baster and put them in my big tanks for my other seahorses or fish.

I also use sea lab # 28. It's a buffer that comes in cubes. They dissolve over time and keep the water perfect for the horses. I do small water changes of about 1/2 gallon per day. I use one drop of methelyne blue in the tank change water 2-3 days per week to help prevent bacteria or fungal infections.

I have a 5 stage filter bought from airwaterice.com I change my filters 3 times per year and don't worry about testing my tanks anymore. I run 5 gallons of water daily that gets divided between 8 tanks. I never have a water quality problem.

My dwarf seahorses are kept at roughly 72-74 degrees. I take the lights off the tank and lay them on the side part of the day to keep the water from getting too hot and I keep my thermostat on 72 in the summer and 68 in the winter. I have a 5 gallon hexagon tank that has a filter pad and a bio-wheel. I covered the in take with a blue cannister filter cover that I sewed on with plastic thread. I rinse this every week.

I have 25 gallons worth of copepod tanks, 2 10's and 1 5. I add copepods to the tank daily and my dwarf horses do hunt for the pods. But you have to realize when they are hanging upside down staring at a rock they are hunting even though it looks like they are not doing anything.

I feed live baby brine and enrich them from day 2-4.

I am about to make space in my house to begin cycling 2 new tanks. I have 2 males that are already showing pouches from the batch of horses that are 7 weeks 5 days old. One of them has been filling and flushing his pouch and I expect him to become a father soon. The other guy has been flirting a lot but not yet flushing and filling his pouch. Their daddy has had only 3 bathes of fry. He was very small when I got him and is now big and healthy. He's only lost one of 16 fry so far.

My horses are wild-caught. I have not treated them for parasites as so many recommend. I got them from CCritters. I bought them through Ebay.

Goodluck

[suzimcmullen]

Oh by the way. I do not decap brine. It's truly not needed. If you remove the airline for 10 minutes and shine a light at the side of your hatching container, the baby brine collect and their swimming action sends the eggs backwards. If you wait long enough the eggs rise to the top and or stick to the bottom. You can carefully turkey baster out the baby brine without sucking up eggs.

What I do is keep 2 containers. The first is a jar for hatching with an airline and an air stone. I am careful to remove the brine 2-3 times per day and put them into the grow out container. I keep an airline and airstone in the 2nd container and feed that container with enrichment twice per day. I use all sorts of foods meant for this and make my own even.

When I want to collect brine for serving to the horses, I let the water sit and shine the light on the 2nd container too. This way any eggs that slipped through the first time are eliminated the 2nd time.

It is a myth that airstones kill brine. It is a myth that hydroids come from brine eggs. It might even be a myth that the eggs kill fry. No one has any real proof of this.

Some of my brine will grow to adulthood in my container. I avoid collecting them easy because they swim freely and the baby brine collects next to the light the first 4 days or so. I feed the adults to my bigger seahorses in the other tank.

[REEF-n-Chicago]

Anyone have pics of a small tank full of dwarfs?

Would love to see!

[suzimcmullen]

Jordan, I'm STILL trying to figure out how to get pictures. See I can post tank shots all day but you won't see the dwarfs. They are so tiny. You have to be just up against the glass and then the glare makes my camera go blurry. I even bought yet another 250 dollar digital camera and I'm still disappointed.

Suzi

[REEF-n-Chicago]

That is amazing.... so small