Kessil

The Mangrove Seahorse Hitching Post

C

CaseyP

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While visiting the Frost Aquarium in Miami with family, my son got excited about seeing seahorses and wife asked if I could put them in my tank (obviously not). I took that as a green light to set up a new tank :p This will be a mangrove and macroalgae specific tank with seahorses and invertebrates like sexy shrimp.

Equipment:
Tank: IM 20 peninsula
Searched long for this as the dimensions are perfect for where the tank sits.
Lighting: Twinstar 600EA IV
Substrate: Miracle mud and oolite sand. Love that I can have sugar fine sand in this low flow environment.
Other: Autoaqua smart nano ATO, generic Axium style DC return pump


Got it started with some macroalgae from @Hella_Salty650 and mangroves from @Srt4eric . Tank is going through massive ugly phase but plants are thriving! I'm dosing cheatogro for iron, magnesium to help the mangroves expel salt, and KNO3 and KH2PO4 since there's no bioload yet to provide nitrate and phosphate.

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max_nano said:
Nice spot for the tank. Having the sunlight for the mangroves seems a lot easier than managing a tank light and a plant light.
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Yup big reason for wanting this IM 20 with a 30" wide dimension was so mangroves could be centered under the window. Many of the ~20g peninsulas are only 24".

Today received a mystery pack of macroalgae and got some pretty cool ones! Bought them on Etsy of all places.
  • Branching Hex, rhodopeltis sp.
  • Red Razor, bryothamnion triquetrum
  • Bird Nest Gracilaria, gracilaria sp
  • Red Bush Gracilaria, gracilaria hayi
  • Flat Thicket, dichotomaria marginata
  • Gutweed, ulva intestinalis
  • Sea lettuce, ulva lactuca
  • Halimedia, halimeda opuntia
  • Codium sp.

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Awesome setup!! Such a beautiful and majestic looking spot for the future seahorses. My daughter wants some too, so we'll be carefully planning that one out. It will be fun to follow along your journey. Then I'll be draining your brain for all the wisdom!
 
CaseyP said:
Yup big reason for wanting this IM 20 with a 30" wide dimension was so mangroves could be centered under the window. Many of the ~20g peninsulas are only 24".

Today received a mystery pack of macroalgae and got some pretty cool ones! Bought them on Etsy of all places.
  • Branching Hex, rhodopeltis sp.
  • Red Razor, bryothamnion triquetrum
  • Bird Nest Gracilaria, gracilaria sp
  • Red Bush Gracilaria, gracilaria hayi
  • Flat Thicket, dichotomaria marginata
  • Gutweed, ulva intestinalis
  • Sea lettuce, ulva lactuca
  • Halimedia, halimeda opuntia
  • Codium sp.
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Man, my seahorse/mangrove tank can not support macros, I’ve tried a bunch! The tank is plumbed to my 150gl display. Po4 is 2.5, no3 is 140. They just melt after a few days. Only Vulva(sea lettuce) will live. Guess there’s a limit of what they can handle. Glad the tank inspired you and feel free to ask any more questions you may have. Cheers Casey
 
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Big update with the tank. Tank has essentially been cycling for a month now with liquid nitrate and phosphate as a nutrient source. With no predators, the copepod and amphipod population has exploded to near plague levels which is perfect for the incoming seahorses.
  • Macroalge: added a bunch more macroalgae varieties and the existing ones have been growing like weeds. Might have gone a bit overboard hah. I will say, it has been tough to get green varieties to balance out the aquascape since the caleurpa genus is now banned in California.
  • Mangroves: Have been kind of stale. No new growth but no degrading either. Maybe when the sunny days get longer and the weather warms up.
  • Sexy Shrimp: Added two from High Tide Aquatics. Cool little creatures. A bit timid but I'm slowly training them to get their food from the same spot every day. I'm feeding them sinking wafers.
  • Seahorses: Did a group buy with two other BAR members and ordered an 8 pack from Ocean Riders Farm in Hawaii. They arrived today, got them acclimated, and they were hunting pods within minutes. Would highly recommend them as a source
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My reason, and excuse, for setting up this tank. I hope he doesn't repeat "sexy shrimp!" at daycare.
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That's looking amazing! We should start a pool for the timeline when he does the sexy dance! Haaa haaa.

What a gorgeous tank Casey! Absolutely love it. I'll show my wife and daughter later. It will give them the push to breakdown some of freshwater tanks! :D
 
Today was a successful progress day in terms of feeding! With their need of daily feedings, going out of town for an extended time would pose a problem since i hear most seahorses only eat live or frozen shrimp. I've been using the same method I do for training finicky fish. For two weeks I've been hand feeding the seahorses twice a day with frozen mysis shrimp using tweezers. First couple days, they were shy of the tweezers but now they know it means food and will quickly swim up to it and even nip at bare metal. Today I got a pack of freeze dried mysis and soaked them in the same juice as the thawed frozen mysis. Did the usual tweezer hand feeding and all three ate some! The goal is to bump up the freeze dried amount until they're 100% comfortable with it then I can try using an auto feeder. Avast has one where it can mix up the food with water before dropping into the tank or I'll design and 3d print one to use with my eheim feeder.
@Coral reefer @Murph

All three here inspecting the tweezer for food
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CaseyP said:
Today was a successful progress day in terms of feeding! With their need of daily feedings, going out of town for an extended time would pose a problem since i hear most seahorses only eat live or frozen shrimp. I've been using the same method I do for training finicky fish. For two weeks I've been hand feeding the seahorses twice a day with frozen mysis shrimp using tweezers. First couple days, they were shy of the tweezers but now they know it means food and will quickly swim up to it and even nip at bare metal. Today I got a pack of freeze dried mysis and soaked them in the same juice as the thawed frozen mysis. Did the usual tweezer hand feeding and all three ate some! The goal is to bump up the freeze dried amount until they're 100% comfortable with it then I can try using an auto feeder. Avast has one where it can mix up the food with water before dropping into the tank or I'll design and 3d print one to use with my eheim feeder.
@Coral reefer @Murph

All three here inspecting the tweezer for food
View attachment 54006
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Do they eat freeze dried calanus?
 
That’s such a cool setup! Good idea to try lots of macroalgaes and see what takes. I didn’t know seahorses would accept non-live foods.
 
Darkxerox said:
Do they eat freeze dried calanus?
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Haven't tried but I'm starting with freeze dried mysis since they're accustomed to frozen mysis. Seahorses are very much visual eaters that inspect their prey so I wanted to mimic their current diet.
Chromis said:
That’s such a cool setup! Good idea to try lots of macroalgaes and see what takes. I didn’t know seahorses would accept non-live foods.
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From what I hear it's really difficult with wild caught seahorses. These seahorses are captive bred from a breeder in Hawaii and already had frozen food as part of their diet so that made the transition easier. 99% of the forum posts I find regarding freeze dried is that they don't like it, which is why I'm really ecstatic that mine have been taking it.
 
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