Dwarf Seahorse care questions?

[That1guy07]

Someone please give me care information on the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus Zosterae). I have done countless hours of research on this species but I want to hear how other take care of their sea horses. Thank you

 

[rayjay]

What you read in your hours of research should have been reflective of how others take care of their dwarf seahorses.
While most dwarf keepers quit within 3 months to a year, there ARE successful hobbyists that do stick with it. For me, I quit after 2 years as I found it to be a perpetual similarity to raising my standard seahorse fry all the time.
It's time consuming with having to hatch out live brine shrimp nauplii, growing them out to the Instar II stage where they can then feed, and then enriching them for at least 12 hours with a high DHA enrichment, but better with TWO 12 hour enrichment stages with new water and new enrichment for the second stage.
Then, treat with hydrogen peroxide to limit bacteria exposure and feed to the dwarfs.
Ideally all remaining live food should be removed before the next feeding because the nauplii quickly loose their nutrient levels so you only want them to feed on the new enriched nauplii you are adding.
I used live rock as the biological filter, and the only other actual filter I used was a mini filter set with a timer to come on after an hour or two that removed the excess nauplii, turning it off when new food added.
Open ended air lines supplied the needed water movement for gas exchange.

 

[TerraMagnus]

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to share my experiences from way back.

When I was completely broke and working at a pet shop, living in a family member's attic, I used my employee discount to buy a small number of Hippocampus zosterae that had showed up. They started in a 10 gallon aquarium and quickly spread as their numbers grew.

It got to the point where I was keeping these things in 1qt pickle jars with nothing more than an air stone, periodically doing 100% water changes... dumping old water out through a net, putting new water into the jar, emptying the net back into the jar. The seahorses didn't mind this at all and their numbers just kept growing.

Get really comfortable with spending time every day maintaining live food cultures. This was honestly a lot more work than the seahorses themselves.

Time and a good work ethic will probably contribute more to success than money/gear.

 

[DracoKat]

It's hatching the BBS and enriching them that is the most 'work'. I quote 'work' as it's easy and quick enough to do, however, it MUST be done. Forget one day to set up the eggs in hatchery? There's a chance they'd go without food for a day. You have to be dedicated to their food.

 

[TerraMagnus]

It's hatching the BBS and enriching them that is the most 'work'. I quote 'work' as it's easy and quick enough to do, however, it MUST be done. Forget one day to set up the eggs in hatchery? There's a chance they'd go without food for a day. You have to be dedicated to their food.

Folks really need to think about this commitment. It's really a big deal.

This impacts things like whether or not you can even travel on vacation, for example. Do you have someone who will come to your home and reliably hatch & feed out BBS every day?