Seahorse care questions.

Yeah my ideas for saltwater is very exciting. I think if I go SW and with seahorse for my pair tank I'll get a m/f pair and have them live in their home =)

So there's no issues with needing more than a pair right? Do they need to be in a group and then pair off or will a m and f just breed given the chance? Unless I go with a smaller species I want to get one of the larger ones that can fit the tank and just have a pair without having to buy multiples and see who pairs off.
 
A m/f pair will be fine. No need for a group. Breeding is not as simple as having a pair and letting them raise their young in the display tank. You will need another system for that all together. A f/f pair is very rewarding if you opt not to breed.
 
greech said:
A m/f pair will be fine. No need for a group. Breeding is not as simple as having a pair and letting them raise their young in the display tank. You will need another system for that all together. A f/f pair is very rewarding if you opt not to breed.
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Gotcha, yeah for some reason I'm very interested in breeding. If I make it happen you will definitely see me back checking out breeding habits. I've seen a couple vids of the m giving birth. Was an amazing sight. I didn't look much further though but I noticed in the vid they didn't try to eat their young so I figured they could be left in the display (obviously there would be A LOT of babies so I would need another tank just for them, probably bigger than the display).

But ya never know. If I check into their lifespans and they live quite a while maybe I would just be happy with a sex matched pair
 
The babies might be safe from their parents but the tank itself would pose a danger to them (sucked into overflows, etc. They also need to be soaked in food pretty much constantly (not somthing you can do in a display tank). Have fun researching :).
 
Oh ok got ya. Yeah I guess those babies are hungry. It's a good thing I have a 3 tiered grow out/breeding/invert setup planned. My LFS has been talking to me about buying fish from me and I've never seen a seahorse there. I live in a small city so it would be great to be the seahorse guy for them. All still up in the air though. Gotta really think about that and make sure I'm willing to put the work in.

I've seen your posts and you mentioned by name a bit Greech. You the saltwater guy around here?
 
A 29G would make a fine display, but SH "breeding tanks" need to be a bit taller. The exchange of eggs from the female to the male occurs during an upward spiral in the water column. Therefore it just needs to be as tall as possible. A 29G may not provide enough room for the exchange to be completed properly, depending on species and size of the pair, if that's your ultimate goal. A 45G having a similar footprint, but being 24" tall may be more suitable. Dwarves are a whole different universe and would be lost in a 29G. You've gotten lots of great references here, and hopefully you'll see that there's lots of things that are absolutely unique to keeping and/or breeding seahorses.
 
Bushkill said:
A 29G would make a fine display, but SH "breeding tanks" need to be a bit taller. The exchange of eggs from the female to the male occurs during an upward spiral in the water column. Therefore it just needs to be as tall as possible. A 29G may not provide enough room for the exchange to be completed properly, depending on species and size of the pair, if that's your ultimate goal. A 45G having a similar footprint, but being 24" tall may be more suitable. Dwarves are a whole different universe and would be lost in a 29G. You've gotten lots of great references here, and hopefully you'll see that there's lots of things that are absolutely unique to keeping and/or breeding seahorses.
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Thank you very much. That helps a lot. I'm shooting for the 29g so that might limit me to dwarves (which is more than ok) but I'm definitely open if I take this route. Goal is to make the best, most comfortable home for my little fish family XD
 
I think what Bushkill (and I) are saying is a 29 is too big for dwarfs.
 
greech said:
I think what Bushkill (and I) are saying is a 29 is too big for dwarfs.
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Yeah I re read it and realized what he was getting at. At first I was thinking 'oh they'll be lost' like it would be fun for them explore but I understand now. That almost phases out the 29g because it is a bit big for dwarfs and a bit small for larger species. Which is fine.

I'd like to go as small as possible and do the dwarfs then but doing a small saltwater tank scares me. I would definitely have a 10g sump behind it. Still researching little bits at a time like if a wet/dry is even necessary in a SW tank if it has a sump and well, to be honest, going from FW to SW and trying to figure out what is important (especially in the filtration department) is kind of confusing. Then add the whole live rock and live sand and sterilizers and protein skimmers and I definitely am going to have a lot of dumb questions as I go here.

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