Dwarf Sea Horses

[SaltedCarmel]

Is anyone local keeping dwarf sea horses? I’ve been looking into getting a couple pairs for a mangrove bowl setup I’ve had running and looking for personal experience and advice regarding them. Heard they breed like crazy too, so if someone is keeping them and willing to sell a couple that would be awesome!

 

[Jikkermanccini]

Is anyone local keeping dwarf sea horses? I’ve been looking into getting a couple pairs for a mangrove bowl setup I’ve had running and looking for personal experience and advice regarding them. Heard they breed like crazy too, so if someone is keeping them and willing to sell a couple that would be awesome!

Southern Aquatics in Roswell had a population of them last time I visited, but that was several years ago. No harm in giving them a call.

 

[SaltedCarmel]

Southern Aquatics in Roswell had a population of them last time I visited, but that was several years ago. No harm in giving them a call.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Sgarlan5]

There is an employee at Premiere Aquatic in Marietta that has some and is currently breeding them. I don’t remember their name, but they said they are selling them. I’d check there and just ask to speak to the employee who is keeping dwarf seahorses. Good luck, I’d like to get some myself….eventually.

 

[SaltedCarmel]

There is an employee at Premiere Aquatic in Marietta that has some and is currently breeding them. I don’t remember their name, but they said they are selling them. I’d check there and just ask to speak to the employee who is keeping dwarf seahorses. Good luck, I’d like to get some myself….eventually.

Yup just called and they do have them in! I’m finalizing my baby brine shrimp hatching setup and probably gonna run it for a little while before purchasing.

 

[kpence73]

Is anyone local keeping dwarf sea horses? I’ve been looking into getting a couple pairs for a mangrove bowl setup I’ve had running and looking for personal experience and advice regarding them. Heard they breed like crazy too, so if someone is keeping them and willing to sell a couple that would be awesome!

I tried that for about six months. I had a 3gal tank set up with macros and gorgonians. Had the tank up and running for about 6 months before adding dwarfs. It was, sadly a disaster. I lost all of them and pretty much everything in the tank multiple times. I gave up and now have an 8gal nano reef.

But yes, Southern Aquatics has them for, I think, $29.99 each. They are not tank-raised from what I remember speaking to them about. I ended up getting tank-raised from Alyssia's Seahorses, and they lasted two weeks and then went with wild-caught from two different places down in the Florida Keys. Those lasted longer but had a parasite problem that wiped out about half. The problem with a dwarf tank is they need a small tank, and treating a small tank for parasites, infections, or even trying to keep water chemistry good is hard. Even though my tank ran for six months, it never actually cycled. Ammonia stayed at 0ppm, but no nitrite or nitrate was ever generated; they stayed at 0ppm as well (which happens in a pico tank), and that caused the macroalgae and gorgonians to degrade. I had to dose NO3 and PO3 to keep the macros growing.

You also have to have a newly hatched brine shrimp source dwarfs available multiple times per day. The best hatchery I found was the black disk one. It didn't require an air pump and I ran 3 disks and had a constant supply of newly hatched nauplii to feed. You do have to feed them multiple times per day and have a way to shut off/bypass your filter while feeding. They are fun to watch eat.

 

[jcook54]

There is an employee at Premiere Aquatic in Marietta that has some and is currently breeding them. I don’t remember their name, but they said they are selling them. I’d check there and just ask to speak to the employee who is keeping dwarf seahorses. Good luck, I’d like to get some myself….eventually.

I was chatting with this person yesterday. They mentioned getting on ARC and maybe trying to sell a few of them direct. We'll see if that happens but there is a legit source locally if you poke around.

 

[SaltedCarmel]

I was chatting with this person yesterday. They mentioned getting on ARC and maybe trying to sell a few of them direct. We'll see if that happens but there is a legit source locally if you poke around.

Appreciate the tip. I’ll keep looking around before I pull the trigger and get some. I want to make sure my artemia hatching setup is running smoothly right now.

 

[Givmeanf]

Give us an update!
Did you buy some seahorses?
How did it go?
Etc
Etc
Etc

 

[SaltedCarmel]

Give us an update!
Did you buy some seahorses?
How did it go?
Etc
Etc
Etc

Hey there! I did not end up buying the seahorses. I'm a college student and I decided the dwarfs would be too much of a commitment to properly care for. However! I recently got access to my school's aquaculture brine shrimp hatchery through my major; I may be able to get some up and running soon! I definitely believe dwarf seahorses are more of a "when" than "if" for me.