How many keep seahorses and Cephs?

[DWhatley]

Reading through all the posts, I noticed a number of people (besides myself) mention seahorses so I thought I would ask how many of us keep both?

 

[monty]

I kept seahorses when I was a kid, and I want to keep cephs now, but I haven't taken the plunge yet... does that count?

I've wanted to keep both since I was a kid, although I have to admit that after a few years the novelty of seahorses wore off a bit. I still like seeing them in public aquaria, and sea dragons even more so, though!

 

[ctarry]

i have 1 male reidi seahorse that might be pregnant. the female died a few days ago

 

[DWhatley]

Monty,

No, it doesn't! I have wanted an octopus since I was a young teen and kept a hitch hiker in a mask for all of 5 minutes (it escaped back into the ocean behind my back). Trapper is the first one I have ever had in an aquarium and I am now (or soon will be) of the double nickel age bracket.

Did you keep seahorses or dwarves? I can see where the dwarves might loose their uniqueness but I don't think I will tire of my larger ones. Of course today's reef keeping has changed soooo much that everything stays more interesting.

 

[monty]

I had fairly large ones. My guess was that they were Hippocampus hudsonius hudsonius or at least they looked exactly like that picture in the Encyclopedia of Sea Horses I had. They were about 3 or 4 inches tall, with the tail in its normal curled position.

I didn't mean to imply that they were terminally boring, just that they didn't enthrall me enough that I kept up with the hobby into high school... and since I'm wanting to pick it up again, I'm more inclined to go for ramping up to an octo or cuttle than seahorses again.

I've read that seahorses are also a bit more controversial now as some are threatened, but I think that's more because of harvesting for insane Chinese medicinal myths than because of the pet trade...

 

[DWhatley]

ctarry,
If you need a suggestion for a brine hatchery, let me know (or are the Redi's the really tiny ones at birth that need something smaller?). Brine shirmp hatching I have licked, keeping the young alive more that 5 weeks is still a challenge I have not met.

 

[DWhatley]

Monty,
The fact that you kept a saltwater aquarium so young is exceptional, regardless of WHAT you kept in it.

Yes, there is a lot of controversy on WC vs CB vs TB seahorses, especially since they CAN be tank bred. I have both WC and CB but have never successfully kept tank bred. It seems strange but the tank bred with wild caught parents seem to be the hardest to keep alive through normal life expectancies.

What has kept you from starting a ceph tank? I didn't even know an octopus COULD be kept in a tank until I found TONMO last year. Then it was a matter of affording the life support system ;>). Expecially after we had just started building out our primary reef (which took over a year in the planning and paying for). If my son had not decided to consolidate his tanks, we probably would still just be reading about octopuses. Now if Trapper will just decide we are safe to be around!

 

[monty]

Monty,
The fact that you kept a saltwater aquarium so young is exceptional, regardless of WHAT you kept in it.

Yes, there is a lot of controversy on WC vs CB vs TB seahorses, especially since they CAN be tank bred. I have both WC and CB but have never successfully kept tank bred. It seems strange but the tank bred with wild caught parents seem to be the hardest to keep alive through normal life expectancies.

What has kept you from starting a ceph tank? I didn't even know an octopus COULD be kept in a tank until I found TONMO last year. Then it was a matter of affording the life support system ;>). Expecially after we had just started building out our primary reef (which took over a year in the planning and paying for). If my son had not decided to consolidate his tanks, we probably would still just be reading about octopuses. Now if Trapper will just decide we are safe to be around!

Thanks, yeah, keeping the seahorses was great fun as a kid.

I've had a number of factors conspiring for me not to have a ceph tank yet: I had put it off when I was moving between rented houses a lot, since it seemed like a bad idea. I know it's a big investment of time and money, and I would only do it if I can really put in the required amounts of both to take proper care of the animal. I also am now very aware of how lucky I got with the seahorses, since I really didn't understand any water parameters other than salinity and pH at the time, and I just used undergravel and carbon filtration, and fed brine shrimp from the LFS, all of which would be pretty sub-par by TONMO standards.

I am thinking of getting a real full-blown tank to learn the ways of wet-dry filters, skimmers, sumps, and whatnot enough to be confident that if I get a bimac or a bandensis that I won't be likely to screw up and lose it, but I'm (in my typical form) spending a lot of time thinking and researching but hesitant to actually make the leap and get started... but when the stars are right, great Cthulhu will, er, wait, I mean when I have the time, money, and plan all aligned, I very much want to get back into the game! And I have been exploring the local LFSes and investigating possible tank choices, so I'm sort of looking down from the diving board, but I'm not positive if and when I'll take the actual plunge...

 

[Brock Fluharty]

I had H. capensis, but they are cold water species, and the male succumbed to a tail infection, and I gave the others up. He was pregnant when he died. Only 2 fry were born (premies) and they died a week later...that experience kind of made me wary of getting any more, simply because I don't want to end up killing them, since H. capensis were the first species of seahorse to be put on the endagered speices list.

 

[Animal Mother]

We (my girlfriend and I) have kept H. Kuda with little luck. We had several H. Reidi in a 60 gallon hex, and after one died mysteriously, we moved them all to quarantine and then they all died, except one, which we have determined is not a Reidi. He stays in a 30 gallon tank by himself now since we can't positively ID him, and certain seahorses will kill other species of seahorse by releasing pathogens into the water, which we assume is what happened. He has done fine since.
We have kept 3 H. Erectus in the main tank and we have had them for 10 months. I really like the Erectus because of the spikey texture.