Tank Size and First Seahorses?

[Rick Cavanaugh]

before buying dwarfs I suggest making artemia for a few weeks to see if this is something you really want to do. It is not hard, but to do this every day for 5 -7 years? In saltwater, larger volumes of water are easier to keep constant. So yes, you can keep dwarfs in a small tank, but it requires daily attention.

 

[vlangel]

Okay thanks so much, sounds great. I am also hoping to figure out a way to get RODI water because I live out in the middle of nowhere. So I think I'll start by setting up the shrimp hatchery just to try it out and research RODI and seahorse breeders in the mean time. I want to get the equipment to make RODI water myself because my other tanks would benefit from it as well but I dont knkw much about it.

before buying dwarfs I suggest making artemia for a few weeks to see if this is something you really want to do. It is not hard, but to do this every day for 5 -7 years? In saltwater, larger volumes of water are easier to keep constant. So yes, you can keep dwarfs in a small tank, but it requires daily attention.

Rick, she is planning on setting up a hatchery while she continues to look into dwarf seahorses and get an RODI unit. She is going about this in an excellent way and I think she will have a good idea what she is getting into if she decides to keep dwarfs.

 

[sde1500]

Interesting and timely discussion. I've just been toying around with the idea of a dwarf tank. I've had in the past run multiple cultures of copepods. I know there are some free swimming varieties too. I don't think a 10g would be big enough to sustain a population of them, but I wonder if it could if supplemented enough with a culture as well? This could allow for lighter density stocking of dwarf seahorses and prevent some of the feeding issues? Thoughts?

 

[vlangel]

Interesting and timely discussion. I've just been toying around with the idea of a dwarf tank. I've had in the past run multiple cultures of copepods. I know there are some free swimming varieties too. I don't think a 10g would be big enough to sustain a population of them, but I wonder if it could if supplemented enough with a culture as well? This could allow for lighter density stocking of dwarf seahorses and prevent some of the feeding issues? Thoughts?

Maybe someone else who is actually a dwarf seahorse keeper @Lucie or has kept them in the past @rayjay can jump in. I keep erectus seahorses and although I have read a lot about dwarf seahorses, I have never kept a tank of them.

 

[rayjay]

A year or two back there was a hobbyist posting on the org about his experiment with a large tank and few dwarfs fed only on sustained pod life in the tank. I don't remember too much about it now though.
In my OWN experiences, I know that I would need an extensive sized culture system just to support a few dwarfs due to the amount of food they consume daily coupled with the fact that the culturing of pod life is VERY slow comparatively speaking. Knowing the rate of pod growth in a tank, I don't believe it makes a lot of difference in the pod production of a 10g compared to say a 2.5g dwarf tank so thinking of density of food that is best for the dwarfs, I'd go with a 2.5g dwarf tank with few dwarfs in it, and go huge with a culturing system with multiple culture vessels.
Speaking personally, after decades of culturing various pods, rotifers, mysid shrimp and especially brine shrimp, I'd not even CONSIDER culturing pods as a soul source of food for dwarfs as hatching/enriching artemia is LESS work and significantly more productive than needed for pod culturing of sufficient numbers.
I used pods ONLY as an EXTRA source of nutrition to the artemia for the dwarfs.

 

[sde1500]

A year or two back there was a hobbyist posting on the org about his experiment with a large tank and few dwarfs fed only on sustained pod life in the tank. I don't remember too much about it now though.
In my OWN experiences, I know that I would need an extensive sized culture system just to support a few dwarfs due to the amount of food they consume daily coupled with the fact that the culturing of pod life is VERY slow comparatively speaking. Knowing the rate of pod growth in a tank, I don't believe it makes a lot of difference in the pod production of a 10g compared to say a 2.5g dwarf tank so thinking of density of food that is best for the dwarfs, I'd go with a 2.5g dwarf tank with few dwarfs in it, and go huge with a culturing system with multiple culture vessels.
Speaking personally, after decades of culturing various pods, rotifers, mysid shrimp and especially brine shrimp, I'd not even CONSIDER culturing pods as a soul source of food for dwarfs as hatching/enriching artemia is LESS work and significantly more productive than needed for pod culturing of sufficient numbers.
I used pods ONLY as an EXTRA source of nutrition to the artemia for the dwarfs.

Interesting information, thank you. I had some limited success culturing pods and phyto about a year ago. I'm definitely leaning towards not trying based on research and finding info like this. Though still considering trying. Interestingly I believe it is Ocean rider that I read says a 10 gallon is a suggested size tank. Anyhow. Probably will be starting up my cultures again this spring. Aiming for 3 varieties, likely Arcatia Tonsa, Apocyclops, and Tigriopus Californicus since they are all either free pelagic, or have some free swimming stages, along with a brine culture and roti culture. This is mainly for the current reef tank I have. I would still like to pursue this, so if the cultures prove viable, I'll likely re-visit this, ideally as a low density tank of dwarfs fed by the various cultures. This hopefully could alleviate the issues of vacations.