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Our First Sea Horse Aquarium

My wife joined me for the IMAC conference and saw Seahorse.org's table and started the ball rolling. We converted our 29 hex into saltwater, cycled it for 3 weeks (not quite enough) with live rock and a DSB (deep sand bed)of 5-6 inches. Robin on seahorse.org had some horses looking for a good home, so we got them sooner than we expected. Our horses are Hippocampus kuda or the spotted seahorse. One male - Frodo, 2 females - Waterfall and Seabisquit. They are about 11 months old, and Frodo and Waterfall have pair bonded and done some mating type dancing, but no pregnancy yet. What a joy, very different. We have turtle and shoal grass from Florida Pets, which is great. We also got some ghost shrimp and snails along with the grass, and all are doing great. The male - Frodo and Waterfall have been courting daily, but on the 23, Frodo became pregnant. got the fry grow out tanks ready to try and raise the fry. Frodo hatched ~50 fry (may have missed some). I lost the last one at 13 days, but am ready for the next batch. Frodo's pouch is much more expanded and due to deliver any day now.
New additions: Dapple (male) and Star( female), 2 more kudas, ~4 months old originally from ORA to a LFS in Maine and pumped up by Robin and sent here. They are gorgeous, yellow and have lots of personality. All 5 horses died overnight of questionalbe causes...i performed a necropsy on 2 and found ?abscesses in the kidneys of both... not sure what did this.. but will be doing another tank sometime in the near future
See my gallery for more pics.

Tank Parameters:

Size: 29 Gallon Hex tank
Lighting: Flourescent ~ 30 watts
Filtration: Fluval 303 canister
Sump/Refugium: none yet, still a possibility
Live Rock: ~35 pounds fiji
Substrate: home depot sand ~5-6 inches deep, seeded from my reef tank and from Bill's reefbr> Skimmer: Prism with Berlin air lift chamber glued on top to increase power
Heater: Ebo Jager 250w
Temperature: 78
pH: 8.2
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: <10
Specific Gravity:1.024
kH: 110 mg/L
Feeding: PE/Hikari Mysis, cyclopeze spot feed the corals
Freshwater Top Off: ~1 gallon/week freshwater top off.

Tank Inhabitants:

• 3 Hippocampus kuda - Black: 2 females, one male; ~3 inches long when fully extended; Yellow: 1 male, 1 female ~1.5 inches long
  

Invertebrates

• Ghost Shrimp
  
• 2 peppermint Shrimp
  
• Breeding pods - Harpactoid copepods, gammarus amphipods
  

• Several species of bristle worms
  
• Several Reticulated brittle stars
  
• Cerith, Nassarius snails
  
• Macroalge: caulerpa, chaetomorpha
  
• Several different fan worms
  

• Several small colonies of Cup corals;Phyllangia americana and larger ?Colangia immersa
  
• Orange Sea fans (gorgonians) Swiftia exserta orange with red polyps; aposymbiotic, but keeps polyps extended with frequent water changes.
  

• Aiptasia: now in abundance, the HUNT is on!!- Using Joe's Juice which works quite well
  

Useful Links:

• Reef Central
  
• CTARS Home - CT Area Reef Society
  
• Bill's Reef - great source for live sand and detrivores, etc.
  
• Tampa Bay Saltwater - aquacultured live rock, live sand and other livestock
  
• Live Aquaria
  
• Florida Pets
  
• Sea Horse.Org
  

This page updated March 7, 2005