# Sea Horses



## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

Hey  I just got a new leopard gecko and was showing my mum and she said why couldn't I have all my leos in the empty fishtank we have and I explained why not. She mentioned that she'd love to have seahorses like our cousins do in London and I was just wondering quickly whether they are relatively easy to keep? We have a fishtank at the moment with a variety in but I was considering having them in our empty tank. It's their anniversary end of March so I was thinking of buying them a few seahorses. Just wondering how expensive they are in the UK, how rare they are and if they're easy to keep. thank you  I am currently reading up on them but killing two birds with one stone


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

quite difficult really. Expensive to setup and buy, and then they need constant feeding.

Generally keeping seahorses requires a very dedicated person, who has the time to feed throughout the day and can provide the very best water quality and general care.

probably best to avoid them if you are new to marines, and even then it requires a LOT of knowledge just to keep them alive let alone provide them with a good life. I looked in to it and i consider myself pretty knowledeable about fish, but I just don't have the time needed to look after them let alone and the attention span. We get people into work all the time asking about seahorses and I always try to persuade them against it. Highly specialised fish so try looking at something a bit simpler, either tropicals or less difficult marines


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

thank you Mike  been most helpful. With that in mind then I think it would be best to think of something else  my mum wants to have seahorses, I want to have cheetahs lol some things just cannot be lol. Thank you again : victory:


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

Nothing in the marine hobby is to hard aslong as you plan it first. Pick what seahorses you would like and go from their. A simple FOWLR would be good for some of the bigger more common species. Its not as expensive as everyone says but its not cheap either.
With some careful planning and researching should be fine.

I dont believe in starter fish or starter reptiles. If you get something that you 'should' get to start and its not what you want you are less likely to want it later on.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Yeah, very dificult and exepensive, one of my future plans :no1: (hah...no. Will never have the money or knowledge ) 


There are a few freshwater/brackish pipefish that you can keep - cousins of the sea horses. Much easier and cheaper. : victory:

Edit: Just thought... i researched some seahorses that were TINY, i cant remember though. they were said to be easy to keep. nd i mean tiny, 2" i think. all cool. maybe start with these is your mum really wants some?


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

Esfa said:


> Just thought... i researched some seahorses that were TINY, i cant remember though. they were said to be easy to keep. nd i mean tiny, 2" i think. all cool. maybe start with these is your mum really wants some?


dwarf seahorses?

I dont agree with seahorses being very difficult or even that expensive, 40 quid aint bad for a good sized CB one.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

RussianTort55 said:


> dwarf seahorses?
> 
> I dont agree with seahorses being very difficult or even that expensive, 40 quid aint bad for a good sized CB one.


:crazy:

Looks like my lfs overprices them then. £90 each. :bash:


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## njp (Mar 4, 2007)

RussianTort55 said:


> Nothing in the marine hobby is to hard aslong as you plan it first.
> 
> I dont believe in starter fish or starter reptiles. If you get something that you 'should' get to start and its not what you want you are less likely to want it later on.


In general marines aren't that difficult, but seahorses are very specialised and aren't easy to care for.

I also agree that you should get something you like, but reps are a bit different to marine fish, It's alot harder to maintain the water quality of a marine setup than the temps humidity ect in a viv


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

njp said:


> In general marines aren't that difficult, but seahorses are very specialised and aren't easy to care for.
> 
> I also agree that you should get something you like, but reps are a bit different to marine fish, It's alot harder to maintain the water quality of a marine setup than the temps humidity ect in a viv


I have kept a marine tank at home (no seahorses) and when i worked in a pet shop i was sort of head of fish and rodents. Its 'easy' to keep water stable if you start with a higher volume. 
When i was at the pet shop i ordered in genuine CB seahorses and it was a breeze, i made sure all were feeding on frozen food before selling etc. 

A well cycled tank, and some decent healthy CB seahorses, and lots of reading and i think it could be easily done. It would be better to have some knowledge of fishkeeping before but not essential. I think 'back in the day' when people had smaller tanks and worse filteration they would be give then 'difficult' stamp,and it seems to have stuck.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

RussianTort55 said:


> I have kept a marine tank at home (no seahorses) and when i worked in a pet shop i was sort of head of fish and rodents. Its 'easy' to keep water stable if you start with a higher volume.
> When i was at the pet shop i ordered in genuine CB seahorses and it was a breeze, i made sure all were feeding on frozen food before selling etc.
> 
> A well cycled tank, and some decent healthy CB seahorses, and lots of reading and i think it could be easily done. It would be better to have some knowledge of fishkeeping before but not essential. I think 'back in the day' when people had smaller tanks and worse filteration they would be give then 'difficult' stamp,and it seems to have stuck.


sorry I can't agree one that. Even if you get decent animals and a good setup, it still can't be classed as easy. Things like platys and mollies are easy. Seahorses are not. It's all relative, keeping a yemen chameleon is not hard, but compared to a leopard gecko it is more difficult.


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

mike515 said:


> sorry I can't agree one that. Even if you get decent animals and a good setup, it still can't be classed as easy. Things like platys and mollies are easy. Seahorses are not. It's all relative, keeping a yemen chameleon is not hard, but compared to a leopard gecko it is more difficult.


If you have the correct setup and animals then its easy. If you give them what they need they will be fine, mollies are not cared for by most people they are brackish fish forced to live in freshwater where they often die.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Dunno what mollies you've kept but the majority of them now thrive in freshwater. What with the fact they are found in fresh, salt and brackish water in the wild anyway.


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

Any mollies i have ever kept develop illness very fast and dont live past a few months. Untill you see them through the switch from fresh to brakish you wont understand the difference in behaviour


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

I wouldn't anyway, i have no interest in keeping mollies anymore, and the ones I had years ago were completely healthy in freshwater anyway


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

mike515 said:


> I wouldn't anyway, i have no interest in keeping mollies anymore, and the ones I had years ago were completely healthy in freshwater anyway


they wouldn't have been completely healthy anyway, the mollies around today are a mix between wild fresh and brackish water mollies so need some form of salt in their water to be healthy. Fresh water will result in a lower immune system and your mollie becoming sick with fin rot, or shimmies or similar. 
I could keep a leopard gecko alive in a frog set up, dosn't mean its healthy. Its the difference between surviving and thriving


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

its not the same at all. Mollies have been bred to increase their hardiness, a standard shop bought molly will be happy in freshwater. Have you not quite realised that fish keeping is not always an exact science, some mollies need salt in their water, many do not. There's no need to declare that you're right and everyone else is wrong. You keep yours one way, i kept mine another, neither is wrong, just different.


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

mike515 said:


> its not the same at all. Mollies have been bred to increase their hardiness, a standard shop bought molly will be happy in freshwater. Have you not quite realised that fish keeping is not always an exact science, some mollies need salt in their water, many do not. There's no need to declare that you're right and everyone else is wrong. You keep yours one way, i kept mine another, neither is wrong, just different.


but its not, you cant just breed somthing somewhere to make it hardy to that environment. Mollies need some form of salt to thrive


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

no they don't. How can a fish that is found in freshwater in the wild need salt? mollies that were bred and raised in brackish or saltwater do need salt, but freshwater raised ones do not need salt to thrive.

sorry not getting into an argument here, can't be dealing with ignorant people who can't accept other peoples ideas. Just because your way works doesn't mean mine doesn't. Open your mind a bit


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## RussianTort55 (Jun 9, 2007)

mike515 said:


> no they don't. How can a fish that is found in freshwater in the wild need salt? mollies that were bred and raised in brackish or saltwater do need salt, but freshwater raised ones do not need salt to thrive.
> 
> sorry not getting into an argument here, can't be dealing with ignorant people who can't accept other peoples ideas. Just because your way works doesn't mean mine doesn't. Open your mind a bit


lol as i have already said, you wont find a pure freshwater mollie at you LFS, just because its born in fresh water dosnt make it a freshwater fish.


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## Fudge Gecko (May 15, 2006)

Getting back to the actual topic, as was said the set-up and seahorses aren't the problem. It is feeding. They need a constant supply of food, and usually won't take anything but live food. I work at an aquarium and they are kept in spotless set-ups with a constant supply of shrimps. Also, to be very honest, seahorses are easy to get bored of. Sure, they look good, but they don't do much AT ALL!


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

I agree they do need a constant supply of live food which does make the water quality even harder to maintain, they will tolerate higher levels of nitrate but not sudden changes there for larger volumes of water for stable water conditions are needed. I was lucky because i lived near an estuary and i used to catch bucket loads of mysis shrimp for them but it was so sad to just see them get thinner and thinner.Anyway for the amount of time, money and heart break spent meeting their requirements for what you actually get they are best left to public aquariums.


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

lol I didn't expect the thread to get this heated lol as for them not doing much, that's what my mum said she loved. How they're just suspended in the water with tiny, almost invisible wings going ten to the dozen. 

I've been reading up and seen the amount of work they need. If it were for me I don't think I'd have a problem keeping up but because I'd be buying them for another person I'm buying them the responsibility I think my mum would be up to it but if she's having a bad day she may end up on her power-mad apocolyptic cleaning and forget the seahorses. 

Thank you for all the replies


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## Gecko_Sean (Aug 15, 2007)

i never get why people say they need a constant supply of food, i have kept many seahorses healthy and they get fed frozen food same ammount as other fish and they are now huge and breeding


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

so is this a debatable topic.. like keeping leos on sand lol. Well alright then, how many people actually keep seahorses?


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

I had about 5 years of tropical marine, reefs and fish only keeping experience when i tried seahorses and gave up about 10 yrs or so ago, i dont think there's any reason not to keep them if your keen enough,and i would think by now the equipment may be better then what i had back then, dunno ? or may be i just wasnt good enough (more likely) :blush: I dont keep any fish now, run out of room.


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## Kimmy173 (Aug 2, 2007)

lol thanks Andie  I'm sure you were a great keeper


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## nephilim (Jan 18, 2008)

hi like most things it can be as easy or as difficult you want, i've recently got rid of a 2x1x18" seahorse tank, it had 6 seahorses plus some turbo snails & small hermits, it had tubing fastened around the tank so they could anchor themselves t5 lights, some macro algae to make it look natural, it had undergravel filtration! some would say old fashioned, but it works!! feeding can be a problem, but a bit of thinking can result in a auto feeder, i used an old pill tub i got from a chemist, the grey containers which they dispense from, attach couple of suckers to it drill a tiny hole near top eg 4mm, put your brineshrimp eggs inside stick to inside of tank, when they hatch they swim to the light!! hey presto instant feeder to your seahorse, i also used large pump on the ug, there's plenty of movement for them. i don't have any pics to show you, but visit good shops seek advice on everything, even if it sounds silly still ask & ask again. be expected to pay from £20 upwards for your little horses


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