Dwarf seahorse 10 gallon??

wes_slavens · Aug 3, 2016

I've been looking into getting a 10 gallon jbj or similar all in one system. I was thunkg of trying to do a dawf seahore tank and possibly a pipefish, but I have a few questions:

1) do you know of anywhere that's sells captive bread Seahorses?

2) if they are captive bread will they eat mysis like some of the full size Seahorses?

3) if they eat frozen do I have to feed baby brine or would frozen and copepods be suitable?

4) I would like to do plants like possibly mangrove or seaweed or some sort of macro algae. Any suggestions on plants?

5) last question, if I do the plants do I need to use miracle mud or do I just use straight live sand?

Thank you in advance and sorry for so many questions.

Joeganja · Aug 4, 2016

I would recommend getting either a bio cube at least 20 gallons or an innovative marine Nuvo 20. Pipefish can handle flow better than sea horses I have a dragon faced pipefish in my 90 gallon and the flow is on strong. Live aquaria sells sea horses I believe captive bread also. Most likely they will eat mysis and other easier foods to feed. If you wanna grow gorgonians and any type of sea whips they can attach their tails to not just macro algae then you wanna use live sand. Miracle mud is more for Refugiums due to what it does. But I believe it can be used in a main display just as long as there is very little flow. It shouldn't be moved around.

wes_slavens · Aug 4, 2016

Joeganja said:
I would recommend getting either a bio cube at least 20 gallons or an innovative marine Nuvo 20. Pipefish can handle flow better than sea horses I have a dragon faced pipefish in my 90 gallon and the flow is on strong. Live aquaria sells sea horses I believe captive bread also. Most likely they will eat mysis and other easier foods to feed. If you wanna grow gorgonians and any type of sea whips they can attach their tails to not just macro algae then you wanna use live sand. Miracle mud is more for Refugiums due to what it does. But I believe it can be used in a main display just as long as there is very little flow. It shouldn't be moved around.

I have seen people with pipe fish is their reef tanks, would I be able to do that even though I have hammers and torches and 1 nem?

Joeganja · Aug 4, 2016

wes_slavens said:
I have seen people with pipe fish is their reef tanks, would I be able to do that even though I have hammers and torches and 1 nem?

I have torches but no anemone. Can't tell you with the anemone but torches they'd be fine.

wes_slavens · Aug 4, 2016

Joeganja said:
I have torches but no anemone. Can't tell you with the anemone but torches they'd be fine.

Ok I have a 75g reef and I was thinking of trying to put two yellow multi band pipe fish in. I have put 1500 pods in and two bottles of Tigger pods and just bought another 2250 copepods. Do you think that would be good enough to have a steady amount of pods for those and a mandarin?

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

wes_slavens said:
Ok I have a 75g reef and I was thinking of trying to put two yellow multi band pipe fish in. I have put 1500 pods in and two bottles of Tigger pods and just bought another 2250 copepods. Do you think that would be good enough to have a steady amount of pods for those and a mandarin?

don't think Copepods would be a problem. You should be fine. I haven't added Copepods in almost 6 months and I have no Refugiums for them to grow so good luck with the pipefish. Awesome fish to love. I have the dragon faced because I have sps and a bunch of acros and dragon faced pipe fish eat red bugs which can kill acros so keep that in mind. Awesome fish. And also helps with pests.

wes_slavens · Aug 5, 2016

Joeganja said:
don't think Copepods would be a problem. You should be fine. I haven't added Copepods in almost 6 months and I have no Refugiums for them to grow so good luck with the pipefish. Awesome fish to love. I have the dragon faced because I have sps and a bunch of acros and dragon faced pipe fish eat red bugs which can kill acros so keep that in mind. Awesome fish. And also helps with pests.

Sweet! Thanks for all you help!

meir · Aug 5, 2016

Tell me how it goes cuz I was thinking to do one

meir · Aug 5, 2016

Q tho, can clowns go w dwarf seahorses

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

meir said:
Q tho, can clowns go w dwarf seahorses

I've seen them however because clownfish can become territorial they may attack the sea horses if they come near. It's best to leave sea horses with dragonets, pipefish, and a couple other species.

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

meir said:
Tell me how it goes cuz I was thinking to do one

Sea horse tank is a lot of patience because they require the highest water quality. Gotta get a tank with enough flow for oxygen and aeration but not too strong to kill them. I recommend doing an all in one tank or a bio cube because you remove that large circulation or pump factor in the aquarium itself and your left with the return pump moving all the water and those pumps are usually 150-250gph. With the nuvos you get a y split that disperses the flow in two different return nozzles and allows you to focus one on surface agitation and the other for flow for corals like gorgonians so the sea horses can attach their tails.

meir · Aug 5, 2016

So it's not the best idea

meir · Aug 5, 2016

Can a dragon faced pipefish go in a 10 if not what kind of pipefish can

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

meir said:
Can a dragon faced pipefish go in a 10 if not what kind of pipefish can

Minimum tank size on most pipefish is 30-50 gallons. They can easily grow 4-5 inches long. Mine is about 4 inches long. Sea horses I think you should be fine as long as they are dwarf sea horses but don't go more than 2. Still that's a stretch. They do better in groups. If you can get at least a 20-30 gallon tank so you have that extra room for a pipefish.

meir · Aug 5, 2016

True ok so Ima stay away from them

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

meir said:
True ok so Ima stay away from them

The bigger the better with the seahorse tank. Very difficult fish to keep and have it thrive. But not impossible. Reason I say bigger tank the better because there will be less fluctuations in water chemistry.

meir · Aug 5, 2016

My first sw tank was a 5 gal contour, I was always told that it wldnt work out cuz of the fluxes but I kept it thriving so not to put down what you r saying Ik that seahorses r fragile and can't handle different things but in general with small aquariums if put time into it, it will thrive

Joeganja · Aug 5, 2016

meir said:
My first sw tank was a 5 gal contour, I was always told that it wldnt work out cuz of the fluxes but I kept it thriving so not to put down what you r saying Ik that seahorses r fragile and can't handle different things but in general with small aquariums if put time into it, it will thrive

Of course if you put time into it I'm not trying to say you can't do it. I'm just saying it'll be a little easier to maintain the levels in a larger tank. Your gonna have to test like at least once a week, pH, salinity and so forth. Where a larger tank you don't expect those parameters to fluctuate so much because it's a larger mass you know? I'm sure you can do it just think about you wanna save yourself some extra time.

meir · Aug 5, 2016

Joeganja said:
Of course if you put time into it I'm not trying to say you can't do it. I'm just saying it'll be a little easier to maintain the levels in a larger tank. Your gonna have to test like at least once a week, pH, salinity and so forth. Where a larger tank you don't expect those parameters to fluctuate so much because it's a larger mass you know? I'm sure you can do it just think about you wanna save yourself some extra time.

I'm still a student and so the tank I have can't be big it has to be able to be moved into a dorm when needed so I'm still with my 10