Macro algae in seahorse tank??

[dianepreid]

Hi - Calling all you seahorse experts!!
I am planning my seahorse tank and gradually sorting my redsea max to accomodate them. I recently bought a lovely red bubble macro algae in readyness and am looking for a nice green macro algae. But what is worrying me is that I have been warned by an LFS that if I don't light the macroalgaes 24/7 then they will go asexual and crash!!:eek:
What do all you guys do? Have you had any problems? Any solutions?
Thanks in advance.
Diane:)

[Joanna]

Hi Diane

I have macro algae in my seahorse tank. It consists of Red and Green Grape Algae, Razor Caleurpa and Halimeda. I don't light my tank 24/7 and haven't had any problems with the algae crashing. I will say though that I once had some Feather Caleurpa in with my seahorses when they were in my smaller tank and I was mortified to come home one lunchtime to find that the algae had crashed and the water was really cloudy. I whipped out the culprit and luckily the filter had cleared it all up by the time I got home from work in the evening. The water tests were all fine thank god. I think that you should be fine with the algae but always keep an eye on it.

Joanna

[Sailfin]

I have all sorts of macro algae in the tanks which are lit for a ten hour period (ish). I have never had it crash. Keep an eye on it, it should be weeded regularly and if it ever looks like its going pale/transparent just rip it out.

[Siren]

Hi Diane :wave:
Have a look at Pinkpony's pic's she put in this section of her tank.
She has some gorgeous algae's.
Caulerpa is the one that can crash,and can also give out toxin's when it do's,and can take over tank's if you are not carefull.
It root's onto anything,including rock's,then you can never get rid of it,if you wanted,so i would avoid it if you can,and go for other sort's.
All the best,
Julie.

[Peculiar_Clown]

I too have had some issue with the feathery caleurpa, Caulerpa Sertularioides, I caught it before it crashed too badly,. Had no issues with it since.

http://www.marinelife.eu/images/sertularioides.jpg

[peteinwilts]

i believe caleurpa requires 6 hours minimum darkness to avoid a crash. I have mine on a 14/10 regime and never had a crash.

Out of my 3 foot fuge, I pull about half a carrier bag out a month though... good for the compost!

[pinkpony]

hi all

as sirens said (and thanks for the compliment siren xx) i have lots of types of algae and seaweeds, tank lit 10-12 hours a day BY 150W Halides,no crashes yet but i do try and prune the racemosa (green grape) once a week, this seems to help keep it stable.

And as sailfin said if it looks like it changing colour or going opace (sp) then remove it.

hth

[dianepreid]

Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated.
Have got some green blade and bubble calerpa today.
Another question - Can you keep different species of seahorses in the same tank?
Thanks again
Diane

[Joanna]

Hi Diane

You could keep different species of seahorses in one tank but I wouldn't recommend it because if they breed it may result in hybrids being born. I have heard that this is not a good idea but if anyone else knows any different then please tell.

Joanna

[Sailfin]

Hya

Yes it can result in hybrids being born. Although in the wild when s/h pair up they are usually quite faithful, in aquariums this doesn't usually seem to be the case. There are occasions when different spp will pair and breed.

This is not necessarily the main problem however. All different spp of seahorse can carry pathogens that won't affect them but could affect other spp. Reidi are quite robust and wouldn't necessarily fall to a bug that could wipe out barbouri or comes (for example). There are some hybrid kuda out there that are increadibly suceptable to vibro where other spp in the same tank have not shown symptoms.

Seahorses are also very territorial so if there's bigger spp mixed with smaller spp I'm guessing there could be undue stress caused by the smalle rones being kicked out into sub-optimal territories.

[Joanna]

Hya

Yes it can result in hybrids being born. Although in the wild when s/h pair up they are usually quite faithful, in aquariums this doesn't usually seem to be the case. There are occasions when different spp will pair and breed.

This is not necessarily the main problem however. All different spp of seahorse can carry pathogens that won't affect them but could affect other spp. Reidi are quite robust and wouldn't necessarily fall to a bug that could wipe out barbouri or comes (for example). There are some hybrid kuda out there that are increadibly suceptable to vibro where other spp in the same tank have not shown symptoms.

Seahorses are also very territorial so if there's bigger spp mixed with smaller spp I'm guessing there could be undue stress caused by the smalle rones being kicked out into sub-optimal territories.

Thanks for that useful info. I knew there was a reason but didn't know much about why it's not a good idea to mix seahorses. Is this why you are supposed to worm seahorses if they are mixed??? I know nothing about worming but I have heard someone keep on about it previously.

Joanna

[Eaval]

Does the same still apply to seahorses that are captive bred and / or kept in a linked system?

Mainly thinking that captive bred are more likely to be disease/pathogen free and thus more hardy???

Im a believer in getting captive bred if possible

Thanks

Eaval

[Sailfin]

Yup - worm, quarantine, de-parasitize (not sure if thats a word). AFAIK Some seahorses can actually live with worms ok (although obviously not great) where worms will kill other seahorses in a very short space of time. I've just been worming all my comes last week loads of fun...not (and they're not in a mixed tank)

[Sailfin]

Does the same still apply to seahorses that are captive bred and / or kept in a linked system?

Mainly thinking that captive bred are more likely to be disease/pathogen free and thus more hardy???

Im a believer in getting captive bred if possible

Thanks

Eaval

In this Country captive bred should be all you can get!

On the contrary captive bred can in some ways be weaker because of inbreeding, survival of weaker babies etc.

They should theoretically be more disease free but only if they have never been in mixed tanks. I'm guessing pathogens/nasties could also potentially come in on live rock (wombat would know more about that).

If you buy s/h from a fish shop they are not always on a seperate filter system therefore they can get nasties from the lfs potentially before you get them. If this is the case then doubled with weaker, inbred specimens then you could end up with more suceptable seahorses.

[Eaval]

So how do you de-worm them?

Afraid I have not come across this before.
Sorry to again take this thread off in another direction.

Eaval

[dianepreid]

Thanks again for all the replies. (Sorry for not being back in touch but I am really struggling with the forum being slow and the pages not loading up before timing out:mad:)

Interested about the worming information.
Is it always necessary to do? - I was going to purchase them from an LFS.

Do you need to take them out to worm them in a separate tank each time - or do you leave them in a QT? Do you use the same products as for marine fish? I have some "wormer plus" or what ever it is called now- that I use for my discus which I believe is OK for marine fish.

I am converting my RSM for them - I was going to take the current fish over to my 500l tank and put the seahorses straight into the RSM - but maybe I need to set up a QT? What do you think?

Also which is best to have - not planning on breeding them - Redi or Kuda?

Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks Diane :)

[Sailfin]

Hya

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that they'll need worming just because they come from an lfs.

I personally don't worm seahorses until I know there's a problem - its a very stressful treatment which I don't want to subject them to if I can help it. (Others may worm any new additions as a standard)

The wormer I use (tremazol) I prefer to use in a seperate tank as a short term bath (20 mins) otherwise you end up doing 80% water changes after a day, bacterial blooms etc. I have no idea if 'normal' wormers are ok for seahorses (you want a praziquantel based product) - my gut feeling is that they are usually not...Any copper based products are not good for them.

If you can be sure the tank is completely pathogen free then there shouldn't be a problem with putting the seahorses in the RSM but if there have been problems (parasites etc) in the past it might be a good idea to leave the tank fish free for a couple of months to make sure any nasties have died off.

I would go for Reidi - they are quite robust and there are some cracking colours about.

hth

[dianepreid]

Thanks for the reply. Your info has helped a lot.
I haven't had any heath issues with anything in the RSM so hopefully all will be Ok.
I will look for Redi then - can you recomend a good place to get them?
Cheers Diane