what coral and fish with horse

[chinese101]

currently have a pair of horse in a 29 gal with 50 pound of live rock. (yes, it is filling up most of the tank). setting up a 55 gal for them. wonder what kind of coral and fish can live with them. I am thinking about some mushrooms and clams. For fish, maybe a royal gamma and a red fuji firefish. what other coral and fish can I add?

Also, my male seahorse eats only live brine shrimps. I feed the brine with DTs and micorvert before feeding it to him. Is this alright? The female is very strange. When I bought it, it was the same color as the male (dark marble, I think they are erectus or something). It changed color to yellow after 2 weeks. Is this normal? It refused even live brine shimp. It is sucking something off the live rocks all the time. Still living after 4 months. I'm worry. Its belly is always concave, unlike the male. I think it does not have enough to eat. How can I start her to be interested in live brine or other food?

Lee

[bucaru]

Lee,

Your female is probably snicking up copepods and/or amphipods from the lr. You definitely need to get some good frozen mysis shrimp such as PE Brand as it contains all of the nutrients that seahorses require. Also it has a very high protein content of around 69%.

If you are feeding only live brine you'll need to enrich them somehow to get HUFAs (highly unsaturated fatty acids) including the DHA omega 6 and omega 3 series which are the extra long chain fatty acids into their diet.

Your tank mate ideas sound fine. I have mushrooms in with my horses but it will be dependant upon your lighting as I'm sure you know.

Visit www.seahorse.org (Seahorse.org) and get a wealth of info on keeping seahorses. Lots of extremely friendly and helpful people. Hope to see you there!

[chinese101]

Thanks bucaru,

Tried feeding frozen mysis to them. They would not take it. I'll try the enrich live brine route. The felmale is not even interested in the live brine. Lucky I got load of 4 year old live rock that are booming with live on them. Hopefully the felmale would not deplet the pods and strave herself. I can still see a lot of insect like creature crawing all over my tank during the day time. Also, I'm using natural seawater I got on my fishing trips, so there maybe other life there. Still trying with the frozen mysis one day every week. No response. Maybe I need to switch brand.

Lee

[bucaru]

Lee,

My seahorses did not like the Sally's Brand. It is certainly not as nutritious either at about 4% protein.

That's great that you have all of the critters on your rock. It could be too that she is getting all she wants off of the rock.

Wild caught seahorses sometimes need to have a tank raised horse to show them how to eat frozen. Once they see another eat they will eventually follow suit. HTH.
-steve

[Airel]

Hi Lee,
I'm sorry I'm so late in responding. I just got home from a mini vacation to the beach with my husband and kids. So I've been away from the computer for a few days.

Your set up sounds very nice. You can keep up to 8 horses (4 prs.) in your 29gal tank. Any soft corals will be fine. Stay away from stinging corals. No clams:eek1: Sorry. Horses are not careful where they hitch and can easily be hurt by closing clams. A members horse at Seahorse.org got his tail caught in a clam. OUCH!!!!!

As far as suitable fish, there are many. I personally keep a pair of Red Scooter Blennies, a Midas Blenney and a Blue Fairy Wrasse. Bangaii Cardnials and gobies are also good tankmates. Most non aggressive fish will be fine your horses.

As Steve suggested, you really need to get your horses eating something other than live brine shrimp. Although you are enriching the brine they are still not nutritious enough. As you may already know, eating brine as a sole diet is like a human living on potato chips alone. Get your horses some live ghost shrimps or even order some red feeder shrimps from Stockley's. The red feeders can get quiet expensive, but the horses will surely eat them. Without proper nutrition, your female will soon perish.

Color change is quiet normal. Horses change color due to mood and environment. I think in your case, your horses are happy with their new home.

Best of Luck and please get them eating something other than brine!!

HTH,
DeAnne :D

[chinese101]

Thanks Airel

By live ghost shrimp, do you mean the fresh water ghost shrimp at the lfs? My local lfs sells them 5 for a buck. but i think they do not survive in salt water. I also get some salt water glass shrimp (not a lot maybe 5 everyweek) when i do water change with natural sea water i got from the ocean.

I am setting up a 55 gal for them and tranfer them over there. With all the new room, wet/dry, protein skimmer, DSB, I guess they'd be happier. After that, I am planning to get a pair of tank breed horse to show them how to eat frozen food. The mysis shrimp I got is from San Francisco brine shimp Co. Not very good quality, I guess they don't like it. Will switch brand, but can't find a LFS that sells other brand. Will try a wholesaler in Hayward next week to see if I get any luck.

Thanks,
Lee

[Airel]

Hi Lee,
Yes I was talking about FW ghosts. They will live in the salt for a few days or until eaten. I have 1 Wild Caught H. reidi that totally refuses to eat frozen foods. I buy the ghosts for her. I feed about 6-8 at the time. Collecting your own glass shrimp is even better. They should fatten her up in no time.

They do learn from others to eat the frozen foods. My male H. reidi is eating the frozen mysis but she just refuses. You can order the PE mysis online at www.premiumaquatics.com He was having a special of buy 2 get 1 free. I'm not sure if this special is still going on, but may be worth asking. I asked my local lfs to get them and they did. It was that simple!!!

HTH,
DeAnne :D

[chinese101]

thanks for the tip, Airel


Lee