Dwarf seahorse care

[Omakoshark]

Hey, I am new to seahorses, and was wanting some advice on dwarf seahorses. I heard they are harder to care for than other seahorses. The only reason I’d prefer the dwarves is because of tank size and cost. The plan for the tank is to grow lots of macroalgae so pods can live and reproduce to feed the horses. What do you think?

 

[rayjay]

Unfortunately, many have had similar thoughts as you have. However, the dwarfs will very quickly decimate the pod population of the tank so while they can be a great ADDITIONAL source of nutrient, the MAIN source is still going to have to be enriched live brine shrimp nauplii. Some have even used external culture systems to try to supply the dwarfs with pods but pods first of all are not the quickest to reproduce, and second, if they are not of sufficient size then you need an inordinate amount to be of any value nutritionally.
As such, I'd recommend you start off by getting a small amount of brine cysts and go through the process of hatching and pretend enriching for a few weeks to see if that is what you really want to do.
Most people get out of dwarf keeping just for that work alone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Live artemia and even rotifiers will be your best bet for food source as Pods may quickly be consumed. They must be well nourished and feeding is the challenge with this grouping of seahorse.
They live in shallow waters which are subject to tidal changes making them adaptive to water movement in the aquarium although low to moderate flow is best. They live about 2 years and breed easily when good conditions are met such as clean water, lower salinity ( 1.023 range) and water temp of 72-74 degrees (again, typical of yidal temperatures)

 

[Wolf89]

4-5 weekly water changes are required, and you must hatch food for them daily. Not easy stuff

 

[Omakoshark]

Yes. I agree with y’all. I was looking for something more simple. Is there any way to get them to eat tiny broken up frozen brine or masis shrimp?

 

[Omakoshark]

I was thinking about buying one and try to spot feed it and teach it to eat that way, and if it failed, at least I didn’t waste 40 bucks on a lot of them.

 

[rayjay]

Believe me, I've been keeping seahorses for 18 yrs and over that time I've seen MANY postings of people attempting to keep dwarfs without having to feed enriched live brine naupli and while occasionally you see posts about them eating some frozen, it would depend on the individual dwarf, and even those individuals wouldn't feed enough on them to survive their normal 2yr +- lifespan.
Many have attempted to grow copepods to sustain them, but while pods are a GREAT additional nutrient form, they don't grow at a rate to be able to sustain even small numbers of dwarfs.
Theoretically one could have an external culture of pods going to keep adding to the dwarf tank, but as that culture system would have to be enormous and involve a LOT of work, it's MUCH more work than just using brine.
While each dwarf system varies with the attention it needs to maintain, even a simple setup can be sustained with only about weekly water changes.
Another failure in keeping dwarfs stems from the fact most DON'T remove the uneaten live food from the last feeding before they add the new nauplii. As such, there is a mix in the dwarf tank of food newly enriched and food that has NO enrichment left (depletion is rapid) and dwarfs are not going to be selecting the good over the bad so end up with their personal immune systems gradually fading leading to problems with nasty bacteria and/or parasites.

 

[haleyf1024]

I’ve kept them. They need a 3-5 gallon tank, they can get very overwhelmed in a larger system and you can’t get their food concentrated enough. I kept mine with a sponge filter and kept them at room temperature of 71*. It is true that you will need 2 brine shrimp hatcheries. One to use for feedings on day A while the other is hatching new bbs to feed on day B, so you can always have one with hatched ready to feed. If you get the flow right, many dwarves will eat frozen. I was able to get mine onto frozen bbs, rotifers, and cyclops. It made my life easier but frozen shouldn’t be expected or relied upon. I kept Chaeto in the tank for them to hitch to and to help with water quality

 

[deetu]

The nauplii also don't start eating until 72 hours so need to keep that in mind to gut load before feeding ponies.
I have to use more space and work for the brine shrimp then the ponies alone.

 

[rayjay]

Actually, while the time for nauplii to go through their stages depends on things like temperature, usually they will transition to the Instar II stage in about 18-24 hours when kept in conditions normal to hobbyists, but MUCH faster when kept in conditions in professional aquaculture facilities. The digestive tract is completed by the Instar II stage so they can be enriched, but also, the carapace is not as tough as in the Instar I stage so they can be more readily digested.
The 72 hours figure could be the normally accepted 24 hours to hatch, another 24 to growout, and then two 12 hour stages for enrichment, all totalling 72 hours.

 

[SauceyReef]

How much work is it to setup a brineshrimp hatchery?

 

[vetteguy53081]

How much work is it to setup a brineshrimp hatchery?

Simple, just keep up with it and get good quality eggs and salinity important. I like San Fransisco Bay brand. There are kits on amazon

OR :

setting up a brine shrimp hatchery - Yahoo Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

setting up a brine shrimp hatchery - Yahoo Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

 

[SauceyReef]

Simple, just keep up with it and get good quality eggs and salinity important. I like San Fransisco Bay brand. There are kits on amazon

OR :

setting up a brine shrimp hatchery - Yahoo Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

setting up a brine shrimp hatchery - Yahoo Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

Happy to bring this thread back to life. I am setting up a 5 gallon vase with a mangrove or two & mainly soft corals. With my setup I am only doing an airline filter - super low flow. I just found out there are dwarf seahorses today! Have been looking up a lot about them. Maybe one day in the future I will give it a go seeing I can get the mangroves and reef growing well with no problems. The tank would coincidentally work out perfect for the dwarfs with the low flow, weekly full water changes I would have to do, and tidal inhabitants/soft corals. In fact I could even remove the heater seeing we keep our house at 70 degrees all year and with the light + enclosed system the tank would probably maintain itself at 72-74 degrees.

I just want to be sure I wouldn't be killing myself with the 2 brine shrimp hatcheries. Are they essentially just little tanks you setup for them? Or jars? Have no idea what I am dealing with.

 

[rayjay]

This is what I've used now for several decades.

HATCHER/ENRICHMENT BOTTLE

 

[SauceyReef]

Oh yeah that is super simple. Definitely considering doing this one day!

If you can get the dwarfs to start breeding - do the fry just make it in the main tank they are living in? Or do they have to be removed and eventually reintroduced?

 

[rayjay]

Dwarf fry stay in the tank with the adults and even eat the same artemia.
The feeding of live food (enriched brine nauplii) is the biggest reason dwarf keepers drop out as it becomes a PITA after a while.