Brought my seahorse home yesterday.

[melusina]

I brought my seahorse home yesterday and she seems to be settling in just fine. I have a couple of questions, though, that I'd like input on.

The first is that I'm trying to figure out how much flow is too much? I have a 90 gallon tank and I currently am using the return and 1 koralia nano for flow but I'm afraid that it's not enough to keep the limited corals in the tank healthy. I have a leather, some green star polyps, a purple blade gorg, and some mushrooms as well as macroalgae in the tank.

The other question that I have is that I'd defiinitely like to add some "friends" for her. She's a h. kuda, supposedly CB. They seem to be hard to find, and I wonder about adding other types as long as I stick to females so they can't crossbreed? I just want to do what's best for her so any advice is welcome and appreciated!

 

[panmanmatt]

Well I highly doubt it is a CB kuda, they haven't been available for about a year or so.

As for mixing her with other seahorses, it is not advisable. It is best to stick with the same species especially if you are unsure of their origin.

Post up a picture and maybe we can get you a positive ID.

 

[SeaLover]

You can have a sea horse in with coral? I have always been told you can't.

 

[panmanmatt]

With certain corals you can. Soft corals such as leathers, gorgonians, zoanthids and mushrooms are fine. No LPS or SPS.

 

[melusina]

Okay, here's some pictures of her. I actually got her from friends who had her for about 2 years before I got her and they are pretty adamant that she's CB. I obviously don't know. They had her with another female who died and who they were told was her sister?? Anyway, here she is:

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[panmanmatt]

She definitely looks like a kuda to me. If they got her 2 years ago it is highly possible that she truly is CB. Unfortunately there aren't any CB kuda available right now.

Once they started importing kuda from Vietnam the breeders here in the US stopped breeding them because they couldn't compete on the pricing. There is one breeder I know of that is trying to get some kuda breeding again but it may be up to a year before he has any ready for sale.

 

[melusina]

So that means she has to live a solitary existence? I hate that - she just seems lonely to me. Do you ever hear of people wanting to sell theirs? I'd just really like her to have a friend.

Also, can I get a "rule of thumb" about how to tell if I have too much flow in my tank?

Thanks!!

 

[panmanmatt]

You can check the for sale forums over at Seahorse.org. There are a few folks with solitary kuda, you may be able to find one willing to part with theirs'.

As for flow, a good rule of thumb is 7-10x turn over. But a more accurate way to tell is if the seahorses are being blown all over the tank then it is too much flow. If your water is barely moving you have too little. The use of spray bars and flared nozzles allow you to have a higher flow rate then if you were to use straight nozzles on your returns.

If you do have a higher flow rate, just be sure to give the seahorses areas with a lower flow that they can rest in.

having observed these beautiful animals in the wild, I will tell you that they can handle more flow than we give them credit for.



It isn't impossible to mix species but it is extremely risky. You will want to quarantine any incoming seahorses for a minimum of 8 weeks to make sure they are as healthy as can be. You'll want to get them from a reputable source, not always your LFS. Personally I refer to buy direct from a breeder so I now what I am getting. Running a UV sterilizer on your system isn't a bad idea either. You will want your water quality to be as close to perfect as possible, including keeping your temperatures in the 72-74 degree range. And then when all that is said and done you can attempt to mix species. You may be successful, you may not. You could lose the new horses, your original seahorse, all of them or be successful and not lose any of them.

 

[melusina]

Thanks! I wondered about the flow issue as I have never been in a still ocean, but as this is my first seahorse, I don't want to screw up.

So I guess the best that I can do at this point is to post that I want to buy CB kudas and see if something comes up. She's pretty small in that 90 gallon tank by herself.

 

[panmanmatt]

So I guess the best that I can do at this point is to post that I want to buy CB kudas and see if something comes up. She's pretty small in that 90 gallon tank by herself.

Yup, that's pretty much it at this point. I will also keep my eyes and ears open and let you know if I hear of anything.

 

[melusina]

Thanks!!

 

[melusina]

I just realized how tough it's going to be to quarantine any new seahorse without an additional chiller. How do most people handle this other than multiple chillers?

 

[panmanmatt]

Fans, cool lighting such as power compacts or T5's, open top tanks run your lights later in the day when the ambient temps are cooler and crank the AC.

You can quarantine in a 10 gallon tank. A fan will probably give you a good 3-4 degree temperature drop on a tank that small.

 

[melusina]

Blue Zoo Aquatics has tank raised h. kuda available on their website. I know that tank raised is not the same as captive bred, but I'm a little hazy on the difference relative to disease, etc. Can you help educate me a bit?

 

[panmanmatt]

Tank raised H kuda are actually raised in net pens in the estuaries of Vietnam. In essence you are buying a wild caught seahorse from the health aspect of it.

They are of extremely poor quality and have a very dismal survival record. I know of 3 batches that have come into the US and they all had huge losses. 2 of them were total losses.

 

[melusina]

Thanks for clearing that up! Sounds like I need to stick with the original plan. She just looks so lonely.