help plunging back to sea horses

[skyedolphan]

ok for unknown reasons my husband has decided he wants sea horses ( who am I to complain about another tank ) he contacted a girl last night and after speaking with her today we are looking at taking them in on Monday. they are eating frozen mysis I have already researched what else is nutritional to feed them but open to any and all suggestions ( as I know there are a few of you old timers out there that have horses )
now I have no prior experiance with the hippocampus erectus ( the two coming in are males ) I have only experience with the H.zosterae. These two are at the moment living in a 5 gallon eclipse as they are babies and this makes it easier to feed eventually they will grow into a 33 hex( I am thinking anyway) I have some sea fans from my main tank can I place a few frags if this in there as hitching post?
I remember Paula having the plastic "toys" for hers and I assume this is OK also. I would like to get a natural pod population going but is it OK to add a couple pieces of rubble rock from the sump in the tank also? I know with the dwarfs the hydroids were a real problem is it the same for the erectus also?
Now salinity is lower ? I believe ?it is at 1.022 now what is a good temp for them? I remember the dwarfs were lower 74-76 same for these guys? Sorry I have been trying to do a search on www.seahorse.org but figured I am getting pretty brain dead /tired right now..
again sorry for the long post just being selfish and trying to make things easier for myself. also those out there with them what would you say is the best book?

 

[randoma]

A diet solely of frozen mysis is fine. I prefer Hikari over PE, but all of our 'horses are smaller than (adult) H. erectus, and the Hikari tend to be smaller than PE.

H. erectus should be no higher than 74F - I'd recommend 72F. Any normal salinity (1.020-1.025) should be fine.

They'll need things to hitch to. Sea fans are fine, so are plastic toys. I like plastic yellow chains from Lowes, but not in a 'real' tank...

Hydroids are not a problem.

You can use rock from the regular tank.

Contrary to popular belief, seahorses can handle quite a bit more flow than is commonly recommended. If there is insufficient flow, you'll have various health issues.

 

[skyedolphan]

thank you CS

 

[SkinnyPete]

I second everything randoma said except that my horses loved PE. They are bigger thank Hikari, but even my smaller Erectus chewed them down. They are higher in protein and my horses just always looked thicker with PE than Hikari.

You should be feeding at least twice per day, some recommend 3xs but I always did twice with no problems.

Frequent feeding leads to poor water quality, so I'd also recommend trying to train them to a feeding station. There are tons of articles on seahorse.org with info on feeding stations. If you feed mysis through a turkey baster soon they'll recognize the turkey baster as a food source and you can lead them to a dish - I used an upside down clam shell. Eventually, you can just turkey baste mysis in the dish and they'll eat out of it. That way any left over food can be sucked back up from the feeding station when they are done and won't get blown around the tank.

Also, make sure to have a hospital tank ready and get the proper medications on hand. Neomycin Sulfate, Diamox (acetazolamide), and Formalin at all time. Seahorses can get fatally sick pretty easily, even with good water. See seahorse.org for information on 'gas bubble disease', 'vibrio', and since you have males 'pouch Emphysema' (good link here http://www.syngnathid.org/articles/diseaseGuide.html ). Seriously, don't skip the medications. I did, thinking my water was perfect and everything would be fine, and I lost 2 horses because I didn't have the proper meds on hand. Better to be safe.

Good luck.

 

[skyedolphan]

thank you Pete I have the Neomycin sulfate and the formalin ( need to check dates though ) on hand where can I find the diamox? I will do some more reading tomorrow thank you for the direct link makes it soo much easier

 

[randoma]

I have extra Diamox if you need it.. Also, I'd keep Furan-2 on hand.

 

[Miller]

Woot....I get to live my Blue Ribbon Eel ownership vicariously through you with Smoke, now Jen and I can can do the same with Sea Horses....sweet.

 

[JustDavidP]

I agree with the flow input and I was onw who was always preaching lower flow. You just want to ensure that they aren't in a flow like you have in a reef. But, real low flow, or slack will cause problems with nusiance algae etc. and you will not be happy with the display.

Dave

 

[Rays]

Hi Dawn, Frozen mysis is fine, glad to hear they are already on it. I have 20 erectus collected from L.I. last summer, all are thriving and breeding. I mix up their feed with PE, Hikari enriched mysis and Hikari enriched brine. A steady diet of PE is believed to be too rich for their livers, although not conclusive, but I prefer to err on the side of caution. Temps should be kept between 70-74, I keep mine a consistent 70-72. Hydroids are only problematic to the fry.

 

[SkinnyPete]

A steady diet of PE is believed to be too rich for their livers

I actually meant to mention this in my first post. There is some discussion on forums about this possibility. Keep in mind that PE has 69.5% protein compared to Hikari's 10%. To help deal with the fat content of PE, most people use a 'fasting day' once a week. So, you take one day a week and don't feed your horses anything. Supposedly it's good for their livers, PE or not.

Also, I forgot I had this, but here's a pic I took of the size difference. Top is PE, bottom is Hikari. Quite a difference...

 

[randoma]

I actually meant to mention this in my first post. There is some discussion on forums about this possibility. Keep in mind that PE has 69.5% protein compared to Hikari's 10%. To help deal with the fat content of PE, most people use a 'fasting day' once a week. So, you take one day a week and don't feed your horses anything. Supposedly it's good for their livers, PE or not.

Since PE and Hikari use different standards for measuring protein, the protein differences are sort of moot.

The 10% comes from Hikari's Guaranteed Analysis which says:

Crude Protein 10.5% min
Crude Fat 1.0% min
Crude Fiber 2.0% max
Moisture 85.0% max

So, if you went with the max/min, excluding the water, the protein would be a minimum of ~65% of the nutritional value. PE's figures are dry weight.

If you're going to spout figures, you really need to compare apples to apples. (Not a slam, SkinnyPete, but that 69.5/10 figure gets propagated over and over again and is not really correct.)

Also, Hikari is saltwater mysis, which is something that marine fish would actually eat in the wild, whereas PE is freshwater and is unlikely to ever meet a marine fish.

Hikari is also vitamin enhanced, whereas PE is not, although I believe they have some enriched formulas out now.

All that said, I don't really think it matters which one you feed - whatever the fish prefer is the best one! Nutritionally either should be sufficient, even as a sole diet.

I do enrich with Naturose, Beta Glucan and Vitamin C every other day for juveniles, about 2x/week for adults, but I'm not convinced it is necessary.

 

[SkinnyPete]

Not a slam, SkinnyPete, but that 69.5/10 figure gets propagated over and over again and is not really correct

Not a problem. And I totally forgot about that comparison issue. I actually remember reading a thread on seahorse.org about that dispute a while ago and there is someone out there that somehow did a flat comparison that I, unfortunately, don't remember the results of...but, I believe they were pretty similar. There are minor cons to both brands and debating it is probably a moot point. I certainly don't want to turn this thread into a mysis comparison discussion. As long as they're eating mysis, you're golden either way.