[Justler]

Well, I tore down my 55 a few months ago, and am wanting to set something small up... I was reading on Flying Fish Express that you can keep 4 seahorses in a 12 gallon desktop tank. How hard are they to keep? I was reading about the pouch ones? What would I need? I know they need low current environment. Please help with links and any information you can provide!

Thanks!
G

[Ninong]

seahorses eat what?

[David]

Indeed there are some seahorses that you could successfully maintain in a desktop tank of ten or twelve gallons, but there are a few things you need to know. First and foremost, you definatley want to obtain captive bred, tank raised horses. Wild caught horses can be extremely difficult to feed and have a fairly poor survival rate in aquaria. Second, your choices are pretty much restricted to the smaller species, such as Hippocampus zosterae, the "dwarf" seahorse. Fortunately this species is readily available, just do a search and you will find tank raised specimens. A somewhat larger species, H. breviceps, might work but I'm not aware of any aquacultured sources. Ocean Rider in Hawaii produces a small horse they call Mo'Olios, I've never seen one and have no idea what species it may be. Check out the OR website for more info.

As for environment it's going to be more "lagoon" than reef. Low flow and lots of macroalgae. They need plenty of "hitching posts" and vertical space is more important that length or width. Try to get the tallest desktop you can find.

Pick up a copy of FAMA, there is a column in it, "Horse Forum" that will help you a lot, especially the Jan '02 edition. HTH, David

[Mikeman]

www.seahorse.org

you could keep well over 60 to 100 dwarf seahorses in a 12g tank, a large species like ocean rider mustangs, probably 3 in a 12g tank, remember that you have to cultivate live brine to keep dwarves, and must have frozen mysis shrimp for the ocean rider ones