My Diary
August 2000 - Original Tank Setup Plan
I have been planning and thinking about my dwarf seahorse setup for about 2 years off and on. I wanted to try to come up with a system that would be the most successful and require the most reasonable amount of maintenance. This is what I came up with: I had first set up a Eclipse six gallon tank about one year and a half ago. I placed a couple pieces of live rock, a culture of salt water Amphipods (Grammarus), and some leafy macro algae. My thought was to see how well I could maintain a colony of Amphipods (Grammarus) and how well the algae would grow. The results were pretty good. With a very minimum effort the tank is teaming with Amphipods (Grammarus) and the algae are growing very well. I do leave the light on 24 hours. Maybe that is why I have such good results with the algae. I chose to do that with the Eclipse six tank because the bulb is so small and I thought the light wasn't sufficient unless I left it on longer.
Since my little experiment worked out o.k. I have made the move to setup my actual dwarf seahorse tank. I am striving to set up an extremely stable tank with a constant living supply of Amphipods (Grammarus) for the horses. I will augment this food source with occasional brine shrimp. My setup that I just purchased yesterday is as follows: I purchased a 20-gallon (long) tank. I chose the long version because it is shorter and the lights would be closer to the algae, which I thought would translate into better growth. Also, I felt the shorter depth simulates the actual environment where the dwarf can frequently be found. I have personally found them in very shallow sea grasses along the Florida coast. Next, I wanted a very stable bacteria culture to maintain a very stable water quality environment for the horses. My filter setup took a little bit of thinking but suddenly one night it came to me in bed. I needed good filtration but I didn't want to suck out any of the small particle "food" sources that the horses eat. Also, I didn't want to risk any horses or fry getting sucked into filters. What I came up with was to use a small power head with flow control and a sponge filter attached to the intake. That way the smaller particles and Amphipods (Grammarus) would stay in the tank and out of the filter. The flow control was set to a very gentle flow so as not to damage any of the seahorses. This is similar to how I had set up my Eclipse six for the test so I am confident that it works. The six-gallon has many very small Amphipods (Grammarus) in addition to the larger adults. Of course, with the Eclipse I didn't use a power head but the included filter (also with a sponge filter on the intake).
I also added larger Cell-Pore sculpted rocks to the main tank for added bacteria colonies. This is almost over-kill for the 20-gallon tank but it will definitely be very stable with the included power head for proper water circulation.. Currently, I am preparing to lace the 20 gallon tank with some Amphipods (Grammarus) and algae from my six gallon. Hopefully, the tank will fill up with algae and Amphipods (Grammarus), which will provide a natural live food source for my horses. I think the trick to my method will be in keeping the Amphipods (Grammarus) one step ahead of the horses. That is why I am using such a large tank for dwarf horses. My theory is that if I place a reasonable number of horses in the tank (6-8) then they won't be able to eat the Amphipods (Grammarus) down. The tank is so large that the Amphipods (Grammarus) will be able to reproduce and fill the tank at a rate that will allow constant grazing for the horses. If this works out well then only an occasional treat of brine shrimp will be required. I will also keep my six-gallon working as it is now - for the Amphipods (Grammarus) in case I need more for the horses.
I know many people recommend small tanks for the dwarfs for fear that their food will dissipate in the tank and be hard to find for the dwarfs. I think this only applies when the tank is relatively empty of food and then the food is added a couple of times throughout the day. Then it stands to reasons that the food would dissipate throughout the tank. But in nature the horses are constantly grazing the grass beds looking for the small creatures that live within the green algae leaves. I am trying to recreate this and hopefully the amount of Amphipods (Grammarus) will be large enough to provide the desired effect. Also, I must mention that I am planning to feed the Amphipods (Grammarus) daily with an invertebrate particle liquid mix. I will squirt a small amount in the tank every day. With the six gallon I used yeast, and fish fry liquid food with great success so I think the only think that is important is to feed the Amphipods (Grammarus) with health food so that the horses will get the nutrients second hand.
I am hoping that the dwarf fry can eat the smallest Amphipods (Grammarus) for a food source. That would be nice if they could stay in the same tank. But I haven't really decided on that yet. I can say that their are many Amphipods (Grammarus) "fry" in my six gallon setup that are as small or smaller than freshly hatched brine shrimp. It seems like it may work.
August 2001 - Update on Seahorses
I
just wanted to share my current progress with trying to keep dwarfs
November 2001
I wanted to update everyone on my success with raising the dwarf babies my horses are having. Also, you may notice that I took the information off about the Eclipse 3 Gallon tank and the Fluval external filter. I found the Eclipse 3 Gallon to be too hot to maintain the horses in a healthy state. I didn't loose any seahorses but they seemed to be uncomfortable in the 3 Gallon. They were breathing too rapidly so I took them out and no longer use that tank. Also, with the Fluval canister filter, I had terrible luck with it leaking all the time. I think it has something to do with the new square shape that these filters now have. I never heard any complaints about the older round versions. Instead I placed a small power head filter in my 20 gallon tank to keep the water circulating. Carol from the Seahorse yahoo group has had trouble with power heads but I have taken great care to set the flow very gentle and added a sponge filter to the intake. So far it has worked great for me. I added the details in the section above.
