# Anyone in GTA sell tank bred Seahorses?



## newflavor (Jun 19, 2013)

Hi All,

I really want to take care of seahorses and do not want to buy seahorses from LFS unless they are tank bred. Does any of you know anyone in Toronto who sells tank bred or maybe a breeder? Thanks!


----------



## Taipan (Feb 12, 2012)

newflavor said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I really want to take care of seahorses and do not want to buy seahorses from LFS unless they are tank bred. Does any of you know anyone in Toronto who sells tank bred or maybe a breeder? Thanks!


Sea U Marine (SUM) and The Coral Reef Shop (CRS) have them in occasionally. Both stores had sea horses when I was visiting this weekend and today. I may be mistaken...but I believe at least some of the sea horses they carried were captive bred.

Also....if member Zenafish is around.....she may have some or at least steer you in the proper direction.

Good Luck.


----------



## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

Sea U Marine often carries captive bred Homocampus erectus, from a US breeder, but won't have any until September.
Coral Reef Shop has some captive bred Hippocampus reidi, bred in Sri Lanka (their an Atlantic species), though they are currently too young to sex. I know Zena had some trouble with these, and I lost one of 4 that I purchased. 
But if you're happy to wait for something special, there may be a shipment of captive bred seahorses coming from Australia in the fall (Hippocampus barbouri, Hippocampus kuda, Hippocampus abdominalis, Hippocampus whitei).


----------



## newflavor (Jun 19, 2013)

Thanks guys. I do not mind waiting. Thanks for the info. It will be great if there are someone out there now where I can buy sea horses. Can you guys show me pictures of seahorses. This is my first time taking care of them. Any tips on taking care of seahorses?


----------



## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

If you look at my thread, you can see some pics of mine.
http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45168

Seahorses require a slightly more mature tank.
How long have you been running yours?
You have to be very careful in terms of livestock.
Many people suggest running species only aquariums.
While I haven't adopted this point of view, keep in mind that many corals will sting seahorses, and many fish will out compete them for food. So make sure you do lots of research


----------



## newflavor (Jun 19, 2013)

tank has been running for 6 weeks without fish. Just live rock and sand. I also added the prodibio start up to help in cycling the tank. It is a 25 gallon nano tank that is made by current usa. I am thinking if housing 4 seahorses in there or is that too much for a 25 gallon? I will also have about 5 electric blue hermit crabs and maybe about 10 snails. Another thing I plan is putting one pipe fish in there with two seahorses.


----------



## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

Your ten snails won't last very long with the hermit crabs.
I'd get rid of them, and get many more snails: Nassarius to move the sand bed, turbos to keep algae at bay, and tectus and astrea for everything else.
In a 25 g, you can have maybe a male and 2 female H. erectus or H. reidi, or 2 pairs of H. barbouri (fingers crossed they come in).

That said, your tank is very very new. Small gobies, blennies (make sure its a peaceful one) or dartfish do well with seahorses. If you can find a pair of gobies such as yellow watchmen, it will be nice to have a bit of activity in your sandbed. It's not recommended that you have pipefish and seahorses together as they can transmit pathogens to one another.Your tank is too small for most species of pipefish, anyway. Also, keep in mind that having seahorses is like double the bioload of any other fish. They need a lot of frozen food, and a lot of it ends up in the sand bed (which is why i suggest so many snails). 
Aside from a fish or two, I would also start putting in some soft corals: xenia, nepthea, gsp, kenya tree, devils hand are easy starter corals and make great hitches, as well as photosynthetic gorgonians (I saw your other post - I can sell you some frags if you'd like). You can also safely keep palys and zoas. In terms of hard coral, montis are usually okay, but its best to stay away from them in general. And no clams!


----------



## newflavor (Jun 19, 2013)

Awesome info. I bought plastic fake corals to go with my seahorse tank actually. I will probably have about 25 snails in the 25 gallon to help in maintaining the sand bed. Is 25 nassarius snail too much> I will also put about 5 hermit crabs in there. Anyone here selling their seahorse or baby seahorses? I would honestly buy from a fellow hobbyist than lfs.


----------



## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

Are you also on RC? RayJay lives in London and breeds H. reidi. Not sure if he has any right now, but you might want to give him a shout.


----------

