What kind of seahorse for reeftank temp?

[kevensquint]

Hi, I'm having a 40 gallon built to plumb into my sps reef system. It will have my mangroves and two seahorses. I can easily get Erectus locally, however my research shows they prefer cooler water, get pretty large and only live for 5 years. My reef is 78-79°f so what type of seahorse will be happy? Thanks

 

[William_Liebbe]

Actually it's not the temp that will be an issue as much as the flow needed for an sps tank would be way too much for ponies. They require a lower flow as they are not strong swimmers

 

[kevensquint]

-I mentioned in my question the seahorses will not be in my reeftank. But the water is the same system.

 

[vlangel]

Hi, I have seahorses and I did exactly what you are planning to do. The problem with having seahorses at 78-79° is bacteria, particularly a strain called vibrio. If you plan to feed frozen mysis to your ponies you will find that they are wasteful, messy eaters. No matter how much care you exert in your feeding method mysis is going to float away and some will get trapped under rock, in plants or coral. Because seahorses by nature like to eat small amounts all day long they can find this now decomposing mysis and in the higher temperatures the ponies are very vulnerable to vibrio. Seahorses just do not have the same immunity in their gut that other fish have.
You are probably wondering why tropical seahorses in the wild do alright at those temperatures which is a good question? It is because in the wild they eat live food. If you were to only feed your ponies live mysis or enriched ghost shrimp then they could be kept at the higher temperatures.

However, there is another consideration. If you buy seahorses they may not have been exposed to the same pathogens as your reef tank fish but they are going to be exposed to those. Not only do seahorses lack immune ability in their gut but also their gills as well and their skin since they are scaleless. They just do not do well when they are exposed to pathogens. I tried to deal with that issue by installing a UV sterilizer between the tanks, plus I had fish that were years old and I was not adding new ones. However, after a year I separated the tanks. The over the top husbandry needed to keep the seahorses healthy on both tanks was too labor intensive and expensive.
So having tried that, I personally do not recommend it.

 

[vlangel]

This is a pic of when my tanks were plumbed together. I actually acclimated my reef tank to 74° and everything did fine but I had softies and LPS. Even my clam thrived though.

 

[kevensquint]

Imo the sps stripping in warmer water ( à la Sanjay joshi) is also caused by vibrio. That said, if your seahorse dies because of vibrio in its gut....how do you know this?

 

[William_Liebbe]

-I mentioned in my question the seahorses will not be in my reeftank. But the water is the same system.

Sorry then I did not see that

 

[William_Liebbe]

I keep API General Cure on hand just in case. Lost a herd of 8 ponies this year due to a vibro outbreak.

I would suggest you go to oceanrider.com join the forums and contact Pete about taking his seahorse care course it will give you tons of good info

 

[kevensquint]

Wait....API general cure kills vibrio?... I have been looking for an acropora vibrio treatment for two years

 

[William_Liebbe]

No it does not directly kill Vibrio I keep it on hand to deal with other issues like internal parasites. From what I have read the best way to keep the vibrio in check is good clean, cool water and keeping the general health as optimal as you can. So, in essence, I use a prophylactic approach to keep health and immunity high which minimizes the chance of Vibrio getting a foothold.
The outbreak we had resulted from a lawnmower blenny that suddenly decided to try and eat algae off the ponies. This caused areas which allowed the Vibrio to take hold and once it did it killed them very fast.

 

[William_Liebbe]

Hi, I'm having a 40 gallon built to plumb into my sps reef system. It will have my mangroves and two seahorses. I can easily get Erectus locally, however my research shows they prefer cooler water, get pretty large and only live for 5 years. My reef is 78-79°f so what type of seahorse will be happy? Thanks

Here is some information on seahorse temp and bacterial growth

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/temperature.html

 

[vlangel]

Imo the sps stripping in warmer water ( à la Sanjay joshi) is also caused by vibrio. That said, if your seahorse dies because of vibrio in its gut....how do you know this?

You can't see the bacteria attacking the insides of the seahorse of course. However the bacteria on the mysis that is consumed by the seahorse begins to get a foothold in the gut since seahorses have less immune ability to deal with it. Sometimes they start to poop out white stringy poop instead of the healthier brownish purpleish poop pellets. If it progresses to the liver and kidneys then the seahorse can begin to experience organ failure and bloat.
Take my word for it, treating sick seahorses is both labor intensive and emotionally exhausting. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[kevensquint]

Starting to look like a refugium with only mangroves. I refuse to put an animal in likely doomed by higher temperature. Eventhough Pisces mysis is supposed to be clean stuff. The seahorses appear not to be tough around 78-80F.

 

[kevensquint]

*picsine mysis

 

[vlangel]

Starting to look like a refugium with only mangroves. I refuse to put an animal in likely doomed by higher temperature. Eventhough Pisces mysis is supposed to be clean stuff. The seahorses appear not to be tough around 78-80F.

I think that is wise. It is really heartbreaking to see them get sick and not be able to stop the inevitable.