Bruce Fraser
Guest
I was asked by another member to start a journal on my seahorse tank that I set-up and cycled earlier this year.
Background
To start, my wife and I were on vacation in February 2019 on the Big Island of Hawaii and decided to take a tour (I highly recommend) of the Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm (Seahorse.com). This one tour got me hooked on setting up a seahorse tank. They sell their farm raised seahorses to individual buyers only and require that you read their training program (over 400 pages) and become certified by one of their employees before they will sell to you. It is not difficult to complete and it was enjoyable to learn more about seahorses. This process showed me they really care about where their seahorses end up. They have about a 50% success rate in raising the seahorses on their farm compared to less than 1% in the ocean. Their seahorses are taught to eat frozen Mysis shrimp which makes keeping them that much easier and they are more durable than the ones taken directly from the ocean. By the way, I have had one or more saltwater fish tanks for about 25 years. I just started a reef tank about 2 years ago.
Tank Set-up and Regular Maintenance
Red Sea E-260 (69 gallons/81 gallons with in-cabinet sump)
Temperature: optimum 72 F - 75 F
Specific Gravity: 1.022 - 1.026 and optimum 1.0245
pH: Range 8.0 - 8.4 and optimum about 8.2
Ammonia and Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: range 0 - 20 ppm and optimum 0 - 10 ppm
Flow: Significantly lower than fish only or coral tanks due to the fact they are not really strong swimmers; The recommended flow is about 5 to 10 times per hour, although I set my tank at about 14 times and they seem to be okay
Overall, my water parameters are in line with what is required for seahorses. The nitrates are about 3 ppm, but I need to really make sure the phosphates stay in control as well.
Ocean Rider Purchases
Besides seahorses, Ocean Rider sells other farm raised fish as well. I was lucky enough to start with a pair of Banded Pipe Fish that sell out fast, then after about a month I purchased two pairs of Mustangs. This week I received two pairs of Sunbursts. This will be about all I will add to the tank as the rule of thumb is a pair per 10 gallons. Overall, they are doing well and are really fun to watch. They are not like a lot of other fish in that they are not afraid of you. In fact, whenever I place a tester, such as to double check the pH into the tank, they swim up to it to check it out. They are very curious creatures. They also like to attach their tales to each other and sometimes one will wrap its tail around another one's head which as you can imagine is not received well by the one seahorse. At feeding time if their tales are linked, it is really funny to see one try to go one way to eat a shrimp and the other one goes the opposite way. Below are some pictures of my tank, although the photography is not the best, along with a picture of a Banded Pipe Fish as mine were not cooperating at the time I took the pictures:
I have not even scratched the surface when to comes to seahorses, but I would be happy to answer any questions keeping in mind I am fairly new to keeping them. I would also recommend that if you are interested in learning more about them or possibly wanting to set-up a seahorse tank, to go to the Ocean Rider website Seahorse.com and join their forum. You will then be able to request the training materials and ask questions directly to their expert.
Background
To start, my wife and I were on vacation in February 2019 on the Big Island of Hawaii and decided to take a tour (I highly recommend) of the Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm (Seahorse.com). This one tour got me hooked on setting up a seahorse tank. They sell their farm raised seahorses to individual buyers only and require that you read their training program (over 400 pages) and become certified by one of their employees before they will sell to you. It is not difficult to complete and it was enjoyable to learn more about seahorses. This process showed me they really care about where their seahorses end up. They have about a 50% success rate in raising the seahorses on their farm compared to less than 1% in the ocean. Their seahorses are taught to eat frozen Mysis shrimp which makes keeping them that much easier and they are more durable than the ones taken directly from the ocean. By the way, I have had one or more saltwater fish tanks for about 25 years. I just started a reef tank about 2 years ago.
Tank Set-up and Regular Maintenance
Red Sea E-260 (69 gallons/81 gallons with in-cabinet sump)
- Return Pump: Reef Octopus Varios 4
- Additional Pumps included with tank: 2 SICCE RS Flow 2150
- Heaters: Cobalt 100W and Ebo Jaeger 100W
- Protein Skimmer: Reef Octopus Elite 150INT Super Cone Protein Skimmer (I oversized due to the additional waste seahorses create)
- Reactor #1: Lifeguard Turbo Reactor (R800126) for biopellets
- Reactor #2: BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor with Brightwell Aquatics Purit as an additional way to help with the nitrates and phosphates
- Lights: 2 Aqua Illumination Hydra 26 HD LED
- Controller: Neptune APEX System
- Sand: Caribsea Special Grade Reef Sand - 40 lbs/about 1”
- ATO: Coralvue Smart ATO Micro 120P
- Rock: Real Reef Solutions
- Salt: Fritz Reef Sea Salt
- Weekly: Perform 10% water change to clean sand of detritus and any leftover Mysis shrimp; seahorses are somewhat messy eaters, although not as much as I expected
- In-Between Water Changes: Suck up the poop that actually appears in piles that sort of look like that of a real horse and the normal steps like cleaning the protein skimmer
Temperature: optimum 72 F - 75 F
Specific Gravity: 1.022 - 1.026 and optimum 1.0245
pH: Range 8.0 - 8.4 and optimum about 8.2
Ammonia and Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: range 0 - 20 ppm and optimum 0 - 10 ppm
Flow: Significantly lower than fish only or coral tanks due to the fact they are not really strong swimmers; The recommended flow is about 5 to 10 times per hour, although I set my tank at about 14 times and they seem to be okay
Overall, my water parameters are in line with what is required for seahorses. The nitrates are about 3 ppm, but I need to really make sure the phosphates stay in control as well.
Ocean Rider Purchases
Besides seahorses, Ocean Rider sells other farm raised fish as well. I was lucky enough to start with a pair of Banded Pipe Fish that sell out fast, then after about a month I purchased two pairs of Mustangs. This week I received two pairs of Sunbursts. This will be about all I will add to the tank as the rule of thumb is a pair per 10 gallons. Overall, they are doing well and are really fun to watch. They are not like a lot of other fish in that they are not afraid of you. In fact, whenever I place a tester, such as to double check the pH into the tank, they swim up to it to check it out. They are very curious creatures. They also like to attach their tales to each other and sometimes one will wrap its tail around another one's head which as you can imagine is not received well by the one seahorse. At feeding time if their tales are linked, it is really funny to see one try to go one way to eat a shrimp and the other one goes the opposite way. Below are some pictures of my tank, although the photography is not the best, along with a picture of a Banded Pipe Fish as mine were not cooperating at the time I took the pictures:
I have not even scratched the surface when to comes to seahorses, but I would be happy to answer any questions keeping in mind I am fairly new to keeping them. I would also recommend that if you are interested in learning more about them or possibly wanting to set-up a seahorse tank, to go to the Ocean Rider website Seahorse.com and join their forum. You will then be able to request the training materials and ask questions directly to their expert.
