How to Start a Saltwater Fish Tank for Seahorses

Video Transcript

"And keeping seahorses is very similar to keeping a saltwater tank, there's a few extra considerations you need for seahorses. Ideally the tank should be running for several months before you put the seahorses in and should have a good supply of live rock that's cured. And also a culture of Amphipods which will either come in with a live rock or you can buy cultures from your pet store or mail order. Amphipods are little critters that people often see in a tank and become alarmed that they're parasites, but they're actually little Crustaceans that come in on the live rock and the seahorses eat them. The seahorses need to eat all day long because they have a very short intestinal track. Ideally, you should buy tank raised seahorses which will already be eating frozen foods or prepared foods but they'll still need the Amphipods in the tank. The, this is a tank we use in the store for seahorses, it's a little smaller than I'd like to see someone use at home, it's only 14 gallons, but it's worked very well for us here. And in the tank, there's already a piece of live rock, there's a piece of dead gorgonian which is called the seahorse tree, that they like to be able to wrap their tails around. You can also add ornaments, some of the yellow seahorses need like yellow ornaments to maintain the yellow color. And sometimes I'll place some yellow tubing in the tank for them to wrap around and they'll help them maintain their yellow color. Unfortunately, it floats, you have to find a way to hold it down, and I'll usually do that with a piece of live rock. Other pieces of live rock, a nice piece of live rock will have different things growing on it, this one has foreign mini firs and some Coralline Algae. It's porous which helps the tank filter your water. It's fairly decent piece of rock, it's light so it will absorb a lot of water and I just place that in there. And another type of live rock that's nice, is for a seahorse tank is branching rock because it gives the seahorses something additional to hold on to. And you just place it in there securely, you don't want the bit falling on the seahorses. And of course, when I'm disturbing the tank, it's going to get cloudy, and it'll clear up on it's own in a few hours and be ready for the seahorses. I also like to grow Caulerpa or Chaetomorpha or Gracilaria in the tank, these are all seaweeds. They're Macroalgaes and the seahorses will spend most of the time searching through the Macroalgaes, looking for the Amphipods in there. As the Macroalgaes grow it helps filter your water, so it's a very good thing to add. And basically, that's the basics of the seahorse tank. All the main, this is similar to a regular saltwater tank, just few extra considerations for the seahorses."