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Nothing attracts me more than this mythical fish, with a head of a horse, armoured like a amadillo, crown like a unicorn, individual eye movements like a chameleon, prehensile tails to grab and hold things….the Seahorse’s unfishlike features, often makes them weird and being misunderstood. This is all that makes seahorses such interesting fishes!
Seahorse Classification
Family: Syngnathidae
Genus: Hippocampus
Setting up the tank
Seahorse prefer depth than width and length of space, Seahorse should be housed in tank depths, 2-3 times their uncurl length. This depth allows proper breeding ritual to be achieved easily
The height of tank does not matters if breeding the Seahorse is not of concerned. Do at least provide 18 inches of water depth. All Seahorse tank must be cycled before the seahorses are being introduce, like any other marine tanks.
Lighting
Seahorse does not required intense lightings, generally Seahorse just need enough light to see and hunt for food. Normal fluorescent lighting be enough for Seahorse.
Depending on what you are keeping with the seahorse..e.g corals and macroalgaes, more intesnse lightings be needed for their needs.
Substrate
Personally, I prefer #0 sand, they can be used for Deep Sand Bed and they would not hurt or choke the Seahorse even if they accidently snick food along with sand on the sand beds.
Hitching post
Seahorse need somethings for them to hold on to while they are resting or hunting for foods. Hitching post can be branch like driftwood (these need to be soak for weeks before being used) , Tonga liverocks, Live macroalgaes, fake plastic aquarium plants or simple pvc pipings!
Filteration options
Many types of filteration can be used.. canister, hang-ons, ios or sump. But always choose a pump or filter that does not create too strong flows for Seahorse tank….a 2-3 times turn over rate would be good.
Tips
If the flow is too strong, you can always direct the flow directions towards piles of liverocks or walls of the tank to break or reduce the flow .
Water change
Water change should be done at least twice a month or once a week would be more preferred.
Selecting Seahorse
You will want to observed the general appearance of the Seahorse, the belly should not be sunken or concave! Always choose Seahorse with rounded or straight in the cross section around the abdomen area. They should be alert….constantly looking and scanning their surroundings.
Seahorse comes in varies patterns and colours, do watch carefully for unusual gray or white blotches or patches, particularly when they are not the same on both sides. If this weird colouration is observed, try not to buy the Seahorse, as the Seahorse might be suffering from fungal or bacterial infections.
Do check with the local fish shop owners if able to see the Seahorse feeding before buying the Seahorse.
Stocking levels
A 2 feet cube tank can house 2-3 pairs of Seahorse.
Food and Feeding
Once your Seahorses have settled down in their new home, they start to hunt for copepods or other small crustacean around the liverocks! You see them eating (grazing) the whole day long. Seahorses need to be fed at least twice a day, 3 times a day is more preferred.
Types of Food
Live and frozens are commonly fed to Seahorse, but for the latter is more for Captive bred Seahorses, as they are train to take frozens from young. Live food is fed if your Seahorses is Wild caught, in the processed of frozens training or you have a picky Seahorse!
Commonly used live foods are small freshwater ghost shrimps, those u can normally find in Local Fish Shop. Do noteyou have to choose the correct size ghost shrimps, as too big size ghost shrimp, your Seahorse would have difficulty swallow them in a single snick.
Other live foods I’ve used, are Malayan shrimps and Cherry shrimps(more preferred, as they are very small in size and the colours are very attractive to the Seahorse! Very expensive as well!) always gut-load your live food with quality fish pellets befor being fed to the Seahorse. So the Seahorse would get the benefits of the pellets through the gut-loaded live food!
Frozens Hikari mysis are readily gobble down by Captive Seahorse. Feeding the frozens mysis alone is not enough, do enrich the mysis with enrichments like Selco, Kent Zoe and Garlicguard before feeding.
How to enrich? Many may ask….. firstly you thaw the mysis, then add the enrichment to the mysis and mix thoroughly….. leave it for 5-10 mins to allow the mysis to soak up the enrichment, lastly…. Feed to Seahorse.
That’s all folks! Hope the informations be useful to new Seahorse keepers wannabes….
Seahorse keeping is fun , educating, rewarding! It is not that difficult as it might be.
Cheers!
Happy Seahorse keeping
Tevin aka Chinmo
