If you , like me, have always dreamed of having these amazing creatures in your reef, unlike most people would say, I say it is possible. If you're dedicated and willing to make some sacrifices you can keep seahorses in a reef.
To accomplish this feat, you have to start by understanding seahorses, their basic needs, and their interactions with other fish and corals. Seahorses are a very interesting fish. Most live in areas with heavy eel grass or sometimes seaweed. This is because like monkeys and a couple other animals, they have prehensile tails that they wrap around the grass or seaweed and rest. They do this resting because they are not designed to do a lot of swimming. One reason is that their bodies are not particularly designed to swim well. The other is that from their mouth to their hindquarters is a very short distance and they have no real stomach. Because of this they don't absorb many nutrients from their food and they can't store much energy and anchoring themselves with their tail is a way to conserve energy.
There are a couple reasons they live in this vegetation, not among coral. The first reason is that coral usually lives in areas with a pretty strong current and the horses need a calmer area to rest as they will use up all their energy quickly if they are constantly fighting strong water movement. The other reason is that seahorses have no scales. If they wrap their tails around coral constantly, they will constantly be being stung. While most fish have scales to protect them, the horses just have skin. A good analogy to this is a bee stinging you on you palm versus a bee stinging you on your fingernail.
As I said in the previous two paragraphs, seahorses need vegetation and an area of low water movement. This brings me to the first sacrifice you need to make and the first challenge. Reef tanks are colorful and beautiful, but macro algae and fake plants aren't quite as pretty. The challenge is that coral needs high water movement and horses need low. The best way I can think of to solve this is to have power heads higher up in the tank near the top level of the live rock. You then arrange your LR in two lumps with a decent gap in the middle. This arrangement will make it so that the rock lumps have good movement at the top for coral, but the rock blocks the movement of water in the valley. In this valley you put macro algae, dead coral skeletons , and fake eel grass for them to grab onto. This allows both coral and horses to be happy.
The second sacrifice you need to make is with your fish. Many marine fish are very territorial and aggressive. Seahorses are very passive and easily bullied in a tank. Getting around this depends on your tank size. If your tank is below 75 gallons, my recommendation is to avoid all clownfish and tangs. If it is 75 or up you should max out at 2 clownfish and one tang such as a yellow, but nothing like a hippo. This to many people is a great sacrifice, but if your like me, it's worth it. The other sacrifice is that you have to stock your tank with half, at most, of the fish you would otherwise be able to put in it.
The last challenge to doing this is their feeding. Seahorses are very picky eaters. You should NEVER buy a wild caught seahorse. In the wild, they are in trouble and they are infinitely harder to care for. Buy tank cultured seahorses that are trained to eat frozen food, and before you purchase, ask to see them eat. If they won't show you, walk out. Anyway, seahorses need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make sure there is enough food in there to give the other fish their fill and still allow the horses to eat. A good strategy is to feed until the fish are full, then target your horses by dropping frozen myesis or brine shrimp right over them. Try to vary their diet. Myesis is the most nutrient rich, but when i was talking to my friend, who is a seahorse specialist at the new england aquarium, he said that on an all myesis diet, fish and horses died early due to very fatty livers. If you can't get your horses to eat, don't give up, but maybe exchange them for new ones that you could have better luck with.
This is all I could think to share about my favorite animals. Many of you i'm sure will disagree and many I'm sure already know this, but if someone can learn from this I'm glad.
LCP
To accomplish this feat, you have to start by understanding seahorses, their basic needs, and their interactions with other fish and corals. Seahorses are a very interesting fish. Most live in areas with heavy eel grass or sometimes seaweed. This is because like monkeys and a couple other animals, they have prehensile tails that they wrap around the grass or seaweed and rest. They do this resting because they are not designed to do a lot of swimming. One reason is that their bodies are not particularly designed to swim well. The other is that from their mouth to their hindquarters is a very short distance and they have no real stomach. Because of this they don't absorb many nutrients from their food and they can't store much energy and anchoring themselves with their tail is a way to conserve energy.
There are a couple reasons they live in this vegetation, not among coral. The first reason is that coral usually lives in areas with a pretty strong current and the horses need a calmer area to rest as they will use up all their energy quickly if they are constantly fighting strong water movement. The other reason is that seahorses have no scales. If they wrap their tails around coral constantly, they will constantly be being stung. While most fish have scales to protect them, the horses just have skin. A good analogy to this is a bee stinging you on you palm versus a bee stinging you on your fingernail.
As I said in the previous two paragraphs, seahorses need vegetation and an area of low water movement. This brings me to the first sacrifice you need to make and the first challenge. Reef tanks are colorful and beautiful, but macro algae and fake plants aren't quite as pretty. The challenge is that coral needs high water movement and horses need low. The best way I can think of to solve this is to have power heads higher up in the tank near the top level of the live rock. You then arrange your LR in two lumps with a decent gap in the middle. This arrangement will make it so that the rock lumps have good movement at the top for coral, but the rock blocks the movement of water in the valley. In this valley you put macro algae, dead coral skeletons , and fake eel grass for them to grab onto. This allows both coral and horses to be happy.
The second sacrifice you need to make is with your fish. Many marine fish are very territorial and aggressive. Seahorses are very passive and easily bullied in a tank. Getting around this depends on your tank size. If your tank is below 75 gallons, my recommendation is to avoid all clownfish and tangs. If it is 75 or up you should max out at 2 clownfish and one tang such as a yellow, but nothing like a hippo. This to many people is a great sacrifice, but if your like me, it's worth it. The other sacrifice is that you have to stock your tank with half, at most, of the fish you would otherwise be able to put in it.
The last challenge to doing this is their feeding. Seahorses are very picky eaters. You should NEVER buy a wild caught seahorse. In the wild, they are in trouble and they are infinitely harder to care for. Buy tank cultured seahorses that are trained to eat frozen food, and before you purchase, ask to see them eat. If they won't show you, walk out. Anyway, seahorses need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make sure there is enough food in there to give the other fish their fill and still allow the horses to eat. A good strategy is to feed until the fish are full, then target your horses by dropping frozen myesis or brine shrimp right over them. Try to vary their diet. Myesis is the most nutrient rich, but when i was talking to my friend, who is a seahorse specialist at the new england aquarium, he said that on an all myesis diet, fish and horses died early due to very fatty livers. If you can't get your horses to eat, don't give up, but maybe exchange them for new ones that you could have better luck with.
This is all I could think to share about my favorite animals. Many of you i'm sure will disagree and many I'm sure already know this, but if someone can learn from this I'm glad.
LCP
