Saltwater Aquarium Guide -- Fast Facts

Fast Facts (page 15)

Seahorse Care, Water Flow, and Feeding: Seahorses require an aquarium with a low water flow and many places for them to wrap their tails around. Ideally, live rock should be provided for a natural food source with many different types of gorgonians and sponges to hang on to. To make feeding easier, the seahorses should be housed in an aquarium of 50 gallons or less, and should be housed with other seahorses. If other species of fish are to be housed in the same aquarium, they should be slow moving and non-aggressive. Mandarin gobies and pipefish are examples of acceptable tank mates. Seahorses do not require special lighting systems, but they do benefit from proper filtration. Wet/dry filters and canister filters are ideal for seahorse aquariums. Please note: seahorses, mandarin gobies, and pipefish require meticulous care and are recommended for expert aquarium hobbyists.

Feeding the seahorses can be difficult at the beginning, and live foods should be available. Offer live freshwater ghost shrimp, live brine shrimp enriched with a vitamin such as Selcon, and feeder guppies. Immediately after feeding live food, it is best to offer frozen mysid shrimp that have been thawed. To do this, draw a mysid shrimp into a pipette so part of the shrimp is hanging out, and dangle the shrimp in front of the seahorse. It may take a few feedings to get the seahorses accustomed to the new food, but in time, they will readily take the frozen mysid shrimp and will hunt them down as they are moved about the aquarium by the current.

Water pH and Alkalinity for African Cichlids: There are a number of buffers available on the market specifically geared towards African Cichlids, such as Malawi/Victoria Buffer by SeaChem, or Cichlid Buffer by Kent. To maintain a proper alkalinity along with the pH, it's recommended that the makeup water used with these products has a starting pH of 7.0. This can be achieved by using either distilled water or water that has been treated by reverse osmosis.

Using a substrate that's composed either partially or entirely of aragonite will greatly reduce the amount of buffer that will need to be added. Because of the white color of aragonite, it's a good idea to either mix the aragonite with darker gravel, or add the aragonite first with the darker gravel on top. This will reduce the reflection of light off of the bottom and make it more comfortable for the fish.

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