Sea horses
- Thread starter jper26
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Aquarium keeping is such a time consuming involved hobby that many keepers specialize in it, and probably wouldn't be on arachnopets, although I'm surprised NOBODY has responded. I've kept fish tanks before (freshwater) and have had a hard time keeping up with the required matienence. I am considering setting up a brackish/saltwater tank for invertebrates such as horseshoe crabs.
My understanding is that seahorses are recomended for advanced keepers.
Wade
My understanding is that seahorses are recomended for advanced keepers.
Wade
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I have had many different tropical fish aquariums over the years, no experience with salt water fish though.........
Ed
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Kept a lot of salt water back in the day...
Haven't kept sea horses though. I did however look into it back when they were a consideration and they are supposed to be pretty easy. I have seen them kept and even bred in as simple a setup as a goldfish bowl with and airstone and a plant to anchor to. You should be able to go to Kingsnake.com and find the aquarium hobbiest link from there and get all your questions about them answered.
Phil
Haven't kept sea horses though. I did however look into it back when they were a consideration and they are supposed to be pretty easy. I have seen them kept and even bred in as simple a setup as a goldfish bowl with and airstone and a plant to anchor to. You should be able to go to Kingsnake.com and find the aquarium hobbiest link from there and get all your questions about them answered.
Phil
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- Feb 19, 2003
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ok saltwater aquariums aren't as hard to maintain as people say they are. and if your getting seahorses, then thats all you need to have they are extremely aggressive towards fish. we had a 3 in sea dragon and it killed about five fish before we tok it out and put it in its own tank. I have been considering getting an octopus there only like five bucks but they will also eat anything you have in the tank, not to mention they are escape artist. hope this helps a little bit.
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Octopus keeping tip...
As you already know octopus are escape artists and the tank must be virtualy airtight or they will get out. A tip you won't find in the books and I unfortunately learned the hard way is this. When feeding an octopus you have to resist the urge to give it too much food. In the wild they will kill whatever they can and stash the food for later. Sadly they also exhibit this behavior in captivity and although it may only seem as if they are rearranging the substrate what they are actually doing is burying food. Unless you know this ahead of time the way you will find out is when you have an overnight ammonia spike in the tank which is lethal to fish but especially inverts. That said they are incredible animals and as long as you watch the food intake they aren't hard to keep at all. Watching them go through the color changing is truly amazing as they blink from one pattern or color to another almost instantly completely unlike a chameleon which takes time to change the octopus changes as fast as flipping TV channels on the remote. Truly wicked creatures.
And you are right also in that salt water is not hard to keep but it is much higher maintenance if from nothing else the cleaning of the constant salt deposits.
Phil
As you already know octopus are escape artists and the tank must be virtualy airtight or they will get out. A tip you won't find in the books and I unfortunately learned the hard way is this. When feeding an octopus you have to resist the urge to give it too much food. In the wild they will kill whatever they can and stash the food for later. Sadly they also exhibit this behavior in captivity and although it may only seem as if they are rearranging the substrate what they are actually doing is burying food. Unless you know this ahead of time the way you will find out is when you have an overnight ammonia spike in the tank which is lethal to fish but especially inverts. That said they are incredible animals and as long as you watch the food intake they aren't hard to keep at all. Watching them go through the color changing is truly amazing as they blink from one pattern or color to another almost instantly completely unlike a chameleon which takes time to change the octopus changes as fast as flipping TV channels on the remote. Truly wicked creatures.
And you are right also in that salt water is not hard to keep but it is much higher maintenance if from nothing else the cleaning of the constant salt deposits.Phil
Ive have kept almost any tropical fish imaginable. I remember my mom getting me my first tank when i was 5 and kept as many as 3 tanks going at once till i was about 17. My favorite tropical fish by far were snakeheads super aggressive and grew at a super fast rate. They are banned in Pa now and some other states because a guy in Md released 2 they reproduced and ate everthing in a pond. They have been found in a number of different places ponds,lakes,rivers they seem to adapt really well. I dont think the guy knew that when he released them they probably had just got too big for his tank. I once released a gar in a local lake when i was like 15 i wouldent do that now knowing what non native species can do.
Heres a site i dug up about the Snakeheads found in Maryland. www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/snakeheadinfosheet.html
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we got in some real sea horses the other day... turns out there nt nearly as aggressive as the sea dragons. but there too docile and the fish beat up on them. oh well heres a pic
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seahorses are quite diffcult to keep especially with other marine fish as they don't like too large currents. But mostly because they need to eat regularly throughout the day and also rarely eat anything but live food. it's trying to keep a regularly supply of copepds etc in a refrugium or finding a retailer to supply it is quite difficult