Soon to have a seahorse

[melusina]

I am in the process of moving from a 90 gallon aquarium to a 225 gallon someday soon (I've only had the 225 for 4 months but hey, it finally has water in it!). Anyway, a friend of mine has recently divorced and I agreed to take her seahorse (h. kuda) and the scooter blenny that shares the tank. I've decided to keep the 90 gallon for the seahorse and add a few other very passive fish. I plan on moving everything out of the 90 gallon except the mandarin, the CUC (serpent stars, turbo and cerith snails, a few hermits), and a leather coral, some star polyps, and maybe some zoas. I'm also getting the majority of the live rock that's currently in the tank with the seahorse, as well as the feeding station that she's used to. I have a chiller that I will hook up prior to bringing her home and an in-tank refugium to assist with breeding pods for both the mandarin and the seahorse (tank currently pretty full of them - the mandarin is a roly poly fat pig).

So, while I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions, I'll start with these:

Do I need to move the mithrax crabs out of the tank?

How can I minimize the stress during the move?

What am I not thinking of?

Any suggestions, comments, etc., would be most helpful and appreciated.

[SeahorseBT]

I am not sure on the mithrax crabs. Is the 90 gallon already cycled? Then you can just bag up the seahorse up and brings her home. Make sure you offer a hitch in transit. If you ever want to keep more seahorses, you need to find the source of the seahorses in the same tank. You can't mix captive bred and wild caught. I am sure Matt will be along soon to answer the rest of your questions.

[melusina]

Yes, the 90 gallon is cycled. It currently contains a foxface, a niger trigger, a midas blenny, a squarespot anthias, and the mandarin - my plan is that all will be going to the big boy tank except the mandarin. I'm also planning on moving most of my live rock to the big boy tank, and moving the rock that is in her current tank to my tank. The sand and all equipment will remain.

As for the source, that might be tough. My friend said that she was CB but that's what she was told at the LFS that she purchased them from. She had a pair, but one died approximately 2 months ago. She had them for over a year and the store that she bought them from has gone out of business. I would absolutely like to add additional seahorses eventually as a 90 gallon tank is pretty big for one seahorse, a mandarin, and a blenny.

[SeahorseBT]

Did she ever ask where they got it from? LFS don't always tell the truth. There aren't many kuda breeders out there. ORA sells them though. If you could find out that would be a huge help. PM panmanmatt here on RS. He should have some more advice. He is the expert.