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Seahorse with octo

brett

O. vulgaris
Registered
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
96
Ok i have had my octo for 2 months now and i dont want to sound uninformed but i figured id ask anyway. what would be the possible outcome of puttimg a seahorse or two in my octopus tank? i fiugure since they are not the typical octo food and sucha weird animal that he wouldnt even mess with em. oh and maybe a pipefish as well> thank you for your thoughts.
 
They'd probably be fine as tank mates. We've had our midget octopus ( Octopus sp) in with seahorses (H. abdominalis) with no problems. The only thing is that your tank may be the wrong shape for seahorses. They tend to require a tank that is taller than it is wide, especially if you want them to mate...the courtship dance requires height! And they need hitching posts.

Hope this helps

J
 
Never thought of that combination...if you do it, please post some pics...sounds like a really neat tank.
greg
 
Just be cautious about adding anything fishy to the tank, even sea horses may end up being a snack or at least a toy and as all Hippocampus species are now on CITES i dont think it a healthy risk to take...
 
I remember one member her had his/ her octo take a seahorse the moment it was put in the tank.But good luck if your trying :)

Good thing the seahorses were put on CITES ( any idea what appendix? ) at a wholesaler's they would bring in a few thousand seahorses in every week, they were kept in overcrowded tanks (sometimes even with cuttles) and were sold at extremely cheap prices. People would buy them and they would die pretty quickly as they would take live shrimp. Most of them were H.comes histrix and kuda's were not uncommon. Thankfully all that has stopped. Only one person breeding them now and mainly reidi's.

How big is the octo now? you could try getting a seahorse/s that are quite a bit larger than the octo. Btw, if you feed your octo shrimps,its likely the seahorses would try to snick it.
 
i was thinking about getting the captive bred ones from marinedepotlive.com they eat frozen food from the time they are born supposedly. so that might work and the octo is small but thats a good idea to get a much bigger one than he. any suggestions on seahorse care tho?
 
Well your tank can't have strong currents, seahorses can also develop many problems like air bubbles under their skin and for males in their pouch. I'm not sure of the exact reason though. This will cause bouyancy and swimming problems...

Get one of the larger species like reidi, kuda, abdominalis or even ingens. They come in many colours and should be large enough to stay out of the octos menu. Only buy captive bred seahorses, wild ones take a long time to accept frozen food and require live foods in the meantime. They could be hosts of parasites too.

www.oceanrider.com has a large selection of cb seahorses though their prices are higher. Check out seahorses.de , they have great info on their care.
 
joel_ang said:
Well your tank can't have strong currents, seahorses can also develop many problems like air bubbles under their skin and for males in their pouch. I'm not sure of the exact reason though. This will cause bouyancy and swimming problems...

It can be related to water quality too. ANY thing even slightly rotten in a tank can cause it, even slightly rotting weed. If the O2 content drops so do the horses etc

Horses MUST have hitching posts. Because they don't swim well the tire very quickly. This doesn't have to be weed it can be non toxic plastic such as air hose or non toxic fine rope. These need to be anchored in some way.


J
 
74 is ok for a seahorse. Any idea what could have caused a seahorse's eye to bloat up Jean? Bacteria? It was my favourite one though its passed already.
 
joel_ang said:
74 is ok for a seahorse. Any idea what could have caused a seahorse's eye to bloat up Jean? Bacteria? It was my favourite one though its passed already.

Sounds like popeye, most fish can get it. Not entirely sure what causes it but bacteria almost certainly plays a part, usually the fish has some damage first, maybe a scratch or net damage etc Stress doesn't help. we've had some success treating early stages with meth blue or malachite green (NOT in an octi tank!!!!!!) and isolation but 9 times out of 10 the fish dies. So I suspect there was little you could do.


Sorry

Jean
 
well, so i figure i will try to get a seahorse of the "kuda"? ? ? species as large as i can. and see how it works if he attacks i will have a seperate place set up to save him if i can... thank you very much oh and also anyone done this in the past that wants to chime in?
 
Omg please no!

I'm sorry but seahorses and octos will NOT do as tankmates! Seahorses have VERY specific requirements and need to be kept in a species tank, not added to a tank set up for another animal. Just as with with an octopus these requirements must be met exactly or your seahorses will not survive. Seahorses are also very succeptable to stress. Even if the octo didn't consider the seahorse a food source, if it were to grab onto the seahorse it could easily injure and stress to the point of death. They're very delicate compared to other types of fish. They are also very slow and wouldn't be able to escape if they felt they were in danger. Many seahorses have died as the result of a hitchhiker crab that snuck it's way into the tank and decided to take a pinch at a tail. That results in stress, injury, infection and death in some cases. Imagine what a curious octo could do.
I can see how some of you may have been lucky with some of the larger species of seahorses like pots, but that's just what it is...luck. Keeping a seahorse with an octopus would be like keeping an octo with a trigger.

74 is ok for a seahorse.
74 is ok for SOME seahorses. There are 3 different temperature ranges that seahorses are found in.
Remember these are min and max temps...the coldest temp they can survive at doesn't mean it's a good idea to keep them there.
1) Tropical species - kept at 74-78 degrees F (24-26 degrees C)
2) Subtropical species - kept at 70-74 degrees F (22-25 degrees C)
3) Temperate species - kept at 66-72 degrees F (19-22 degrees C)

Brett please reconsider this idea...especially now that CITIES is in effect seahorses are extremely hard to come by in the US right now and they're also very expensive. If you can afford to buy the seahorses and provide for them anyways, think about setting up a tank just for them. In the end it will be much better for all involved. You also mentioned pipefish. They have even more specific requirements and are much harder to keep than the already hard to keep seahorses.

Check out www.seahorse.org if you have any questions about seahorses. :)

I apologize for coming across so strongly. I just wanted to make sure that everyone who thought this might be a good idea, knew about the special requirements that seahorses need to survive. It would be really great if it were possible. To have 2 of the coolest creatures in the ocean together in a tank would be amazing...but it just won't work out. Again I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I'm just passionate about seahorses as I'm sure a lot of you are about octos.
 

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