Can I have a pair of seahorses in this tank?

[brittanysmith18]

My tank is 55 gallons on a filter and live rock. I have 2 ocellaris clowns, a yellow belly blue tang, a fire goby, 4 snails, 2 hermits, mushroom coral, 3 fans, green bubble tip anemone, and a green soft coral. The tank is at 81 degrees, no nitrates or ammonia. Salinity 1.024. I just feel like it might be overcrowding the tank, plus this is a reef tank. Just curious!

[btreyes]

You would have to get rid of the tang, clownfish, and bubbletip anemone and then you would have to manage to get the temperature down below 78. The fish might show aggression towards the seahorses and would out-compete the seahorses for mysis. The anemone could sting and possibly eat the seahorses. The temperature being 81 could cause diseases like vibrio infections in the seahorse. If you'd be willing to make the changes, the tank sounds like it would be a really good home for some seahorses. :)

[brittanysmith18]

What's the minimum tank size I can have a pair in? I would love to get some!

[TamiW]

29 gallon for most species. A few of the 'big uns' like Ingens and Abdominalis need even larger tanks.

[brittanysmith18]

My local pet store has some on display in like a 16g biocube or nano cube tank. It looked nice. The seahorses were by themselves and very very small..

[btreyes]

Yeah, they will definitely outgrow that tank... You can house juveniles in 16 gallons, but you might as well buy the bigger tank for when they are adults. Nano and biocubes also have heat buildup issues where they sometimes get too warm for seahorses.

[rayjay]

If you are really interested in keeping seahorses, you could read the links at the bottom of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping (http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/seahorsekeeping.html)" written by experienced keepers and a commercial breeder.

[brittanysmith18]

The guy at my LFS told me seahorses are fairly easy to keep. I'm interested in breeding them, and would keep them in around 40 gallons by themselves except for maybe some soft corals. Are they difficult to breed? My LFS usually sells them in pairs, which I would buy a pair and never leave one alone at the store.. I feel that's mean!

[rayjay]

Some people consider seahorses to be easy to keep but most find it challenging.
Almost ALL LFSs don't know dick all about keeping seahorses and lie a lot to get the sales.
Also, most sell tank raised not true captive bred. Cheaper but a lot riskier to buy.
Breeding is not all that easy especially with pelagic fry like you get from kuda and reidi. Erectus have benthic fry and are a bit easier.
It would be wise to do a lot more research into keeping seahorses before you go ahead with it.
Generally speaking, keeping seahorses is more difficult that a reef tank.

[brittanysmith18]

Thanks! I of course will do research. They're expensive, and I think they're beautiful little creatures. I would buy a pair though. And would the pair automatically mate on their own if they want to? Reef tanks are pretty difficult.. I learned the hard way.. My only problem was lighting though. Other than that, not much trouble.

[rayjay]

No, they don't automatically pair and produce offspring but depending on the species, some produce easier than others, and more frequently.
Before you buy, check out seahorsesource.com as their seahorses are True Captive Bred and haven't been in tank systems with other fish to be contaminated by pathogens they haven't grown up with.

[brittanysmith18]

Alright I will! I also noticed that the LFS has them in a tank with a couple other fish, but they just call them seahorses.. No species or anything. I know they are not tank bred though. I am sketchy about buying seahorses from there though! I'd rather buy them online from somewhere where I know where they're coming from and what species.

[rayjay]

If they are in a tank with other fish, they may already be compromised with pathogen transfer from the other fish to the seahorses.
Even kept in a system connected to another tank with other fish can be a problem.
The two biggest causes of seahorse losses are bacterial and pathogen.
How do you know they are not tank raised?
If they were True Captive Bred, they would know the breeder and the species, and, should be able to tell you so you can confirm it.

[brittanysmith18]

It says captive seahorses on the sign. Just not the species on the sign. I never asked the employees, so I could just be assuming they don't know?

[rayjay]

Store owners often say that because tank raised are raised in large round cement tanks and could truthfully be said to be captive raised.
However, in the hobby, it's better to distinguish tank raised from True Captive Bred.
Tank raised, even when called captive bred, are raised in ocean water insufficiently filtered and treated for pathogens. The ONLY advantage they have over buying wild caught is that they usually are trained to eat frozen foods.
True Captive Bred seahorses are raised in either commercial salts like Instant Ocean, or, in ocean water that has been properly filtered and treated for pathogens.
As pathogens from other sources are one of the two biggest killers of seahorses, one stands a much better chance of success when buying the True Captive Bred.
That doesn't mean that all True CB's are going to be successful, nor does it mean that all tank raised are doomed to die. The fact is though, the tank raised success rates are very much lower than those of True Captive Bred.
Again, the LFS should be able to tell you the breeder and species of the seahorse if they are True Captive Bred. Suspect tank raised if they can't tell you both the breeder and the species.
Species name is important sometimes when problems arise and you need help, and, to advise you the best way to rear fry if you should be lucky to have them.

[brittanysmith18]

Thanks so much. I definitely don't plan on getting any anytime soon, and I will probably specially order them.

[TamiW]

The other problem with "tank raised" seahorses is that they're generally sold too small. Based on your description and what I've been seeing in stores lately, they're probably really young and shouldn't be sold yet. People end up buying them because their cute and their fish store either doesn't know or doesn't care how inappropriate tehy are. They really should be bigger before they're sold and if you want to be successful, go with a breeder. Dan and Abbie (Seahorse Source) really can't be beat.

[brittanysmith18]

Thanks so much for the advice! They are cute, which is one thing that attracted me to them, but I of course, want them to be happy and healthy, so much more research on my part is needed.

[Molehs]

As well breeding can be a bit of a crap shoot. I had 2 pair that only successfully mated twice in a year. I recently got another 2 pairs and one of those males has gotten pregnant 5 or 6 times with only 3-8 days off between pregnancies. Mind you I'm not 'trying' to breed them. But if I had that intention from the start it would have been pretty frustrating.

[brittanysmith18]

Well, when I decide to get them, I hope they'll just do it on their own and I won't have to do any sort of "forcing" like I am with my clownfish.