Breeding Tank set-up?

[dancowtan]

Hi there,

If you to design a complete breeding set-up with moving on tanks etc, what would you build?

[Sailfin]

What particular species would you be thinking of breeding and how many?

[dancowtan]

I am a total begginner!!! What would you recommend to get started?

[Sailfin]

Ok sound

I'm assuming your a begginer in Seahorses but not marines?

Assuming you have all the background knowledge on the basics you should start by reading the seahorse articles on the 'sticky' part of this forum. They should give you the background info you need for the initial seahorse tank set up.

Whichever species you go for you should aim ideally for at least three times the full grown height of the seahorse to allow successful mating (and breeding). Most of the people I know only ever raise a few at a time and just tend to have small tanks dotted about the place for the fry. If you really want to focus on the seahorses breeding you should aim for a generously proportioned tank (see articles) with very few tank mates (including other seahorses). Many seahorses which are just kept in pairs will often produce fry more often than those kept in large groups.

I would personally go for something like H. barbouri (Zebra snout) or Pot bellied) as a first seahorse, especially for first time breeding as the fry are relatively easy to raise due to them being benthic (see article). My particular favourite at the mo is H. comes - totally beautiful s/h apart from the fact they're generally nocturnal.

The first fry tank I use is 12"x8"x8". The reason its so small is to concentrate the food in a small area so the babies don't waste too much energy looking for it. Depending on the situation I then use a Rio 125 as a grow out tank (something like 3'x18'x18). Some just get put back in the parents tank.

So to start with I would have:

Parents tank
One very small baby fry tank
One grow out tank ca. 125-200 litres. (personally I rarely use this depends on how many babies you have)