Newbie Questions

[jackinfobo]

So I am new to seahorses and have many questions. Any questions answered along with any tips would be appreciated please! Firstly, I have decided that I want to start with Seahorses from ORA, considering my LFS can order them for me, and I know for a fact that they are captive bread. I wanted an erectus species, but unfortunately ORA has not offered them in stock for a while. The only one available right now is the Kuda species. I would like to know can I get a pair of the Kuda species now, and later add a pair of the erectus species? My tank is a 47gallon column.
Also, is there any signs of desease and such I should be looking out for in perticular?
I have read a lot of controversial opinions of what temperature to keep the seahorses at. I hear too low and parasites occur more frequently, while too warm promotes tail rot. What would the best temperature be please.
Finally, is it best to use lots of live rock to decorate the tank with? I was planning of buying dry rock from MarcoRocks, then adding Bio-Spira from Instant Ocean to reduce the chances of having a new tank syndrome. Like I said, any info pertaining to husbandry about seahorses and breeding them is appriciated. I'm a newbie with seahorses :)

Thanks,
Stephen

[twiggyb]

Seahorsesource.com has erectus in and they're captive bred. I'd look at going through them as well.

[rayjay]

A lot of the questions you ask are subjective and depend on who you ask because it's basically a matter of personal choice.
However there is a lot more to learn and a lot of it can be had by reading the links at the bottom of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping (http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/seahorsekeeping.html)".
Dan Underwood of seahorse source explains the temperature thing best in one of those links.

[cynster]

I kept my tank on the lower end (72F) and still got tail rot - I don't know if that is frequent or not, but it did happen, so I thought I'd let you know.

[rayjay]

The lower temperature SLOW'S the spread of bacteria but can't guarantee that nothing will happen. It still needs a husbandry protocol to keep the bacteria at bay.

[cynster]

I agree with that, but I don't think higher temperature makes fish more susceptible to tail rot specifically. Like it doesn't require high temperatures to thrive.

[rayjay]

No, it definitely doesn't make the seahorse more susceptible, but the warmer the water, the higher the rate of bacterial growth which leads to more dense bacteria cultures that in turn raise the odds of seahorse tail rot, or other infections.
Seahorses in the wild have an ever changing supply of water around them.
In our tanks, the water is all captive and bacteria don't' go anywhere so culture density increases dramatically compared to in the wild.
Dan Underwood has an excellent explanation of this (http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/temperature.html).