I have been contemplating establishing a dwarf sea horse breeding group as I fing these fish quite fascinating...

This will be my very first expededtion in to marine aquaria...so be gentle as I don't know much....

I do have some moral qualms about the marine ornamental fish/coral/invert industry as a whole, so everything I do must be from sustaibable aquaculture...

I am really a newbie at all this so all help/recomendations are appreciated...

:) awesome Seedy!!!!

The seahorses are definitely a neat addition to a tank!!


though before I get into details I'm just going to mention, you will have to set your tank up and running with live rock for OVER A MONTH before you can even get your 'ponies'.

They are sensitive to new water parameters and will mostly not survive ...

Oh yeah...nothing good ever happens quickly in a marine tank...I'm in no rush...I'm just contemplating it...so besides a tank w/cured live rock what do I need to know/do? Is an Eclipse 6 gallon retrofitted with compact flourescent lights going to be sufficient?

How many do you want? A breeding "group"?

Just wanted to touch on what vTEc mentioned, a month is probably minimum, if not even too short IMO. You'd wanna be running a system for atleast 3 months + for it to become stable. Good to see someone else here moving to the dark side! Muuhahah!

I have no idea how many I want....I don't even know if the tank/lighting is enough...

Really, after attending an ornamental fish trade show in Long Beach, CA a few years back, and talking to the transhippers and wholesalers about their collection methods/locations and how they felt about aquaculture and the future of the coral reefs...I swore I would never have a marine tank....It has taken a child coming into my life who has a fascination with seahorses that has prompted my inquiry about how I might accomplish keeping a self sustaining population.

Help...I know almost nothing....

What sorta tank do you got for them Seedy?

Sea Horses aint your typical SW critters they are a little different in care although I find that its not too tough. They are really cool to watch though. If you get some make sure they are eating before you leave the store or you might really have a rough time ahead of you.

The one good thing is they dont require a huge tank and they dont require retna frying lights either. You will need to have great water quality but you wont need a elaborate filtration system and what not.

I have my sea horses in a 24 gallon (tall/show style tank) and just a single light above it. Filtration is a AquaClear 30 (I think) and I have it at its lowest flow setting. You really should consider a tank though that has some decent lighting so that you can have a couple of Gorgonians for them to hang on to. Food is typically small brine shrimp. All in all, they dont have any real demands...

Thanks all! I've been doing a bit of research on them.... Is it correct that they are going to require live food, or will they take to frozen/prepared?

The tank I'm considering is a 6 gallon "Ecliplse" retrofitted with a compact flouresent...

They will take frozen food... most LFS will recommend Brine Shrimp or Mysis shrimp... but neither of those have the required nutrients to keep a seahorse alive for a few months...

Live foods are your best route to go... I had mine live off of enriched frozen foods and they lived forever lol...

another hint... 'horses are slow feeders and take forever to feed on their food especially if the current is blowing them around... so its really key to get the amount of water flow just EXACT enough to keep aeration and just enough so it doesnt toss them around...