seahorsemad

Hi Guys I keep my temperature on my seahorse tank between 18 and 20. Would not recommend putting the clowns in as they enjoy large anenomies which will kill the seahorses and will out eat the seahorses. Also they require a totally different set up than the seahorses and i agree it is unatural I keep one fish in with my seahorses and it is a fish i got from a rockpool. You can get triple stripped blemmies and all sort of other rockpool fish that look very cool, are free and heaps more natural looking. If you want to brighten up the tank what about hermit crabs, or small anenomies (you can get purple ones on the west coast). I also have snapping shrimp, glass shrimp (which may become a snack), sea snails the occasional starfish and some sort of orange sponge. These are great entertainment and have the added bonus of being a clean up crew. Visit your local rockpools and find a few animals in there that you like. Failing all that buy some marine rope, its cheap the seahorses love it and its bright yellow!!!!!!!!

my seahorse tank does not have a skimmer, it had been running for about a year with no problems

thanks pegasus. I have a four foot tank with nine seahorses and various anenomies, crabs and a few snapper shrimp which i have had set up for almost a year now. My nursery tank is a 80 litre tank, bear bottom, with the top blacked out so that the brine shrimp go towards the bottom of the tank (towards the light) and dont cause bubbles in the baby seahorses head. It is running a little sponge filter so the babies dont get sucked up and i am changing up 8 litres a day at the moment. Have also got a few adult brine shrimp in there which seem to be eating all the food that sits on the bottom and dosent get eaten by the seahorses. All is going well so far, but i expect at the most a 10% survival rate, the hardest part is getting them past three weeks old, fins crossed

Thanks everyone, got home tonight and none were dead so i must be doing something right. I have one brine shrimp hatchery and two small fish tanks going at the moment so should be able to keep up with food. I am also feeding them with livebearer liquid food as some of them are too small to eat brine shrimp yet. Wok it was one of the seahorses that i got from napier that gave birth to the babies ($25.00 for 250+ seahorses, what a bargain!!), hoping it might show the other one how to breed. I think we are having a tank crawl next weekend so you can see them then.

I woke up this morning to find a tank full of Seahorse babies, dont know how many have been eaten by the other seahorses but i have approx 250- 300 baby seahorses in a nursery tank now. Photos are coming as soon as i can get someone the host them. They are sooo sweet

Hi Guys Just got back from Napier, what i blast. Big thanks to the organisers it was a great event to attend. And to top it off got some more fish and seahorses (one of them is pregnant so just building my nursery tank now) Thanks guys Alisha

Hi BG I am in auckland and travelling the same days as you are if you want some help or a travel buddy just call out. I am looking at using a chilly bin and a couple of polysytrene containers that came with my seahorses Cheers

temp of 15 is too cold for the seahorses need to be between 17-22. I have found they are most happy around 19 degrees. They love brine shrimp but wont eat the baby ones as they are too small so have to get them to at least teenager size. But dont use brine shrimp as there staple diet as it has no nutritional value for them You can buy frozen mysis shrimp and they are happy with that. For Pot bellied seahorses you should only really have two in your tank as the ratio is a pair per 50 litres approx. Seahorses like a bit of current and i often find mine playing in it. If you have a spray bar then use it. dont push the water up against the glass unless it is too strong for them. Alan is right about the temp. It is a real problem in summer. Even though you are in wellington your normal house temperature during the summer does reach more than 22 degrees which is the max i would have the temperature. The most important thing you can do is wait for the tank to cycle. Mine took two months but it was well worth the wait If you need any help feel free to PM me P.S Dont have my camera at the moment but will try and post some pics later

kribkrazy, i tried most methods to grow my brine shrimp to full size (air pumps, seamonkey food, heater everything) i had given up and used the container to try and grow daphnia outside. Then to my surprise the brine shrimp hatched in freshwater and i have a great culture of them going on my back door step. Ask around and you may find a few people will tell you the best results are achieved by leaving the brine shrimp outside to fend for themselves. I occasionally feed them a crushed up lettace leaf which will rot but is great food for them. I thought it would be too cold for them but they are reproducing in good numbers and my seahorses are really pleased with the results

i get glass shrimps from titirangi so there must be some your side of the harbour as well. Also got a couple of snapper shrimp from mills bay. Would be happy to part with one if you want to pick him up from west auckland

Sorry guys, no pictures at the moment but i am more than happy to help in any way. If you know someone coming to the conferance in september why dont you wait till then and get them to pick them out the best ones for you. That way you have a huge selection and can get what you want instead of the limited amount some shops have to sell you. better still make the trip and go and pick them out yourself.

Hi Guys Sorry to bring the post back up but i have just seen it, the place to buy the new zealand native seahorses (pot bellied) is the seahorse farm in napier. They couriered mine to me for the small charge of $15.00 and only charged me $25.00 per seahorse (what a buy!!!) there address is theseahorsefarm.co.nz. They were really helpful and have some good information on there site. I feed mine frozen mysis shrimp which is about $8.00 at the petshop and when i can visit the local beach to catch small shrimp. They are great to keep but take a huge amount of patience and money when you start up the tank. I regards to the algae, it can be cleaned the same way as you clean a fresh water tank. If you need any help just PM me.

Hi Diver What sort of native fish are you planning on keeping? I am in auckland and keep a cold water seahorse tank so if you need any help PM me. The other reason i ask is because you may have to be wary of the type of fish you get and how you get them. For instance if you are caught with a baby snapper by "you know who" you could get the same fine as a fisherman that has caught and kept a baby (undersized) snapper. Get in contact with mourice from Auckland club. He has researched it a little and may be able to point you in the right direction. Seahorsemad P.S if you get seaweed growing would love to here from you.