Dwarf Seahorses - 2008/06/14 18:51I have a question on setting up a 5 gal dwarf tank.. I have read 2 different version set ups.. one use dead sand, and dead rock.. the other live sand & dead rock.. whats best? also what type of live algae is suitable for dwarf tanks and where to purchase it online.. My last ? is what tank mates if any for dwarfs? I have a breeding pr of Reidi`s .. fry every 15 days.. I figured out a good set up for them.. I also ordered a book on keeping dwarf seahorses. thank you.
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I actually prefer a combination of live rock and live sand for the type of dwarf seahorse tank you are considering. Live rock and live sand are another good option for a dwarf seahorse aquarium, providing you pretreat the tank with fenbendazole to eliminate hydroids, Aiptasia rock anemones, and large bristleworms. The live rock and live sand provide stability for the small aquarium as well as efficient biological filtration (both nitrification and denitrification), so they can be an excellent asset for a dwarf tank providing you debug the LR and LS first.
A regimen of fenbendazole (brand name Panacur) is necessary because sooner or later hydroids will appear in any marine aquarium that is receiving regular feedings of rotifers, copepods, or baby brine shrimp. It's inevitable because they can gain entry into the aquarium in many ways. For example, they are notorious hitchhikers. Both the colonial polyp stage and the free-swimming micro-jellies can thumb a ride on live rock, macroalgae, hitching posts, sand or gravel, specimens of all kinds, or within so much as a single drop of natural seawater (Abbott, 2003). Beware of fuzzy looking seashells! Very often hydrozoans come in on the shells of the hermit crabs or snails we purchase as aquarium janitors (Abbott, 2003). Or they may be introduced with live foods, or even among Artemia cysts, in some cases it seems. They can even be transferred from tank to tank in the aerosol mist arising from an airstone or the bubble stream of a protein skimmer.
So with the live rock and live sand, you're going to have an ongoing problem with hydroids and likely also app Aiptasia rock anemones in your dwarf setup unless it's pretreated with fenbendazole. Because of their diminutive dimensions, dwarf seahorses are susceptible to the stings from hydroids and Aiptasia rock anemones. Hydroids in particular are especially problematic for dwarves when they proliferate unchecked. As they grow and spread, they will soon begin to take a toll on the seahorse fry and even adult dwarfs can succumb to multiple stings or secondary infections that can set in at the site of a sting (Abbott, 2003).
But there is a way you can turn this situation to your advantage and eliminate the risk of hydroids, app Aiptasia rock anemones, and bristleworms from your dwarf seahorse tank. Treating your dwarf tank with a regimen of fenbendazole will eradicate these pests and provide long-lasting protection from hydroids and Aiptasia for your dwarf seahorses. Allow me to explain.
Eliminating Hydroids
Hydroids can be controlled in the aquarium by using a medication known as fenbendazole to treat the tank over a period of days. Fenbendazole (brand name Panacur) is an inexpensive anthelmintic agent (dewormer) used for large animals such as horses, and the de-worming granules can be obtained without a prescription from stores that carry agricultural products (e.g., farm and ranch equipment, farming supplies and products, veterinary supplies, livestock and horse supplies, livestock and horse feed). If you live in a rural area, those would be good places to obtain it as well.
You can also fenbendazole granules in small quantities online from the following vendor:
However, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind when treating an aquarium with fenbendazole. Administering a regimen of fenbendazole (FBZ) or Panacur will eradicate any hydroids, Aiptasia rock anemones, or bristleworms from live rock or live sand, thereby rendering them completely seahorse safe. The recommended dose is 1/8 teaspoon of the horse dewormer granules (22.2% fenbendazole) per 10 gallons of water. Dose aquarium with 1/8 teaspoon/10 gallons every other day until you have administered a total of 3 such treatments (Liisa Coit, pers. com.). Even one dose will do a fine job of eradicating bristeworms, but Aiptasia rock anemones and hydroids are a bit tougher and may require 2-3 doses to eliminate entirely.
Because fenbendazole is essentially a de-worming agent, it will destroy any bristleworms, flat worms, spaghetti worms or the like.
Fenbendazole does not have any adverse effects on biological filtration, but be aware that it is death to many Cnidarians besides hydroids. Mushrooms and related corals are generally not affected, but expect it to have dire effects on other corals (e.g., sinularias), polyps, gorgonians, and anemones. In general, any Cnidarians with polyps that resemble the stalked family of Hydrozoans are likely to be hit hard by fenbendazole, so don't use this treatment in a reef tank!
Also be aware that fenbendazole seems to soak into the porous live rock and be absorbed indefinitely. I know one hobbyist who transferred a small piece of live rock that had been treated with fenbendazole (Panacur) months earlier into a reef tank, where it killed the resident starfish and Astrea snails. So enough of the medication may be retained within treated live rock to impact sensitive animals months after the fenbendazole was administered. This is a good thing for the dwarf seahorse keeper, however, since it will provide long-lasting protection against hydroids and Aiptasia rock anemones. Just don't treat live rock intended for reef systems with fenbendazole (Panacur)!
At the lower dosage recommended for nursery tanks and dwarf seahorse tanks with fry (1/16 tsp. per 10 gallons), fenbendazole normally does not harm cleaner shrimp and decorative shrimp. With the exception of Astrids (Astrea), Coit and Worden have found it does not usually affect the Nassarius snails typically used as aquarium janitors in dwarf seahorse tanks. It will kill starfish but copepods, hermit crabs, and shrimp are normally not affected.
Macroalgae such as the feathery or long-bladed varieties of Caulerpa or Hawaiian Ogo (Gracilaria) are not harmed by exposure to fenbendazole at even triple the normal dose. In fact, if you will be using Caulerpa in your nursery tanks to provide hitching posts for the fry and serve as a form of natural filtration, it's a very wise precaution indeed to treat them with a regimen of fenbendazole beforehand.
So fenbendazole (FBZ) or Panacur is primarily useful for ridding bare-bottomed nursery tanks and dwarf seahorses setups of hyrdroids and Aiptasia anemones, ridding Caulerpa and other macroalge of hydroids or Aiptasia before its goes into the aquarium, and cleansing live rock of bristleworms, hydroids, and Aiptasia rock anemones before it is introduced to the aquarium.
It can also be used to eradicate bristleworms, hydroids, an Aiptasia from an established aquarium if it does not house sensitive animals such as live corals and gorgonians, starfish, Astrea snails, or tubeworms and other desirable worms that may be harmed by FBZ, providing you monitor the ammonia levels closely and are prepared to deal with the ammonia spike that may result from the sudden death of the worm population.
Live rock and live sand that has been pretreated with fenbendazole should be quite safe for dwarf seahorses and their fry, and because it soaks into the porous interior of the live rock and then is gradually released again, it can provide a dwarf seahorse tank with long-lasting protection against stinging organisms like hydroid's and app Aiptasia rock anemones. The amount of the fenbendazole that gradually leaches out of the porous live rock is quite miniscule. It is effective in controlling hydroids and various marine worms even in the insignificant dosage that seeps out of the treated LR because they are sensitive to the medication and even though the dose of fenbendazole that is released is negligible, it is being released at a fairly constant rate and therefore maintaining a continuous, very low level of fenbendazole in the tank. Fenbendazole is an anthelminthic agent or dewormer, designed to kill certain invertebrates such as worms, and it is therefore deadly to bristleworms and cnidarians with nematocysts such as Aiptasia anemones and hydroids, but it is quite safe to use with vertebrates such as seahorses at the dosages we are discussing.
In short, even at relatively concentrated doses, fenbendazole does not harm seahorse fry when it is being used to eradicate hydroids from nursery tanks, so it should not be harmful to your dwarf seahorse fry in the insignificant amounts that gradually leach out of pretreated live rock. In fact, I know a couple of dwarf seahorse keepers who use pretreated live rock in their setups, and they have reported no problems with it affecting their H. zosterae fry. As long as there are no sensitive corals or Astrea snails in your dwarf seahorse tank, I don't believe fenbendazole-treated live rock would pose any risk for your dwarf seahorses or their offspring, and I would recommend treating your dwarf tank with a regimen of fenbendazole before you add any ponies.
To sum things up, hartsafire, there are three good options for a dwarf seahorse setup in a five-gallon aquarium. Either you can equip it with undergravels or sponge filters and a lush bed of Caulerpa or other macroalgae, or you can use dead sand and dead rock with macroalgae, or you can set it up with live rock and live sand, along with some choice macros that you have pretreated with a regimen of fenbendazole (brand name Panacur), which has the added benefit of providing prolonged protection against hydroids and Aiptasia rock anemones. Because hydrozoans in such a terrible scourge for a dwarf seahorse keepers, many hobbyists prefer the LS/LR plus fenbendazole option nowadays.
Dwarf seahorses do best in well-planted aquariums that simulate the seagrass beds they normally inhabit in the wild. For decorating or aquascaping your dwarf seahorse tank, I suggest using one or more seahorse trees along with lush beds of macroalgae. I prefer decorative marine plants or macroalgae in a variety of shapes and colors and color -- reds, golds, and yellows in addition to green varieties, some tall and feather, some short and bushy -- to provide them with natural hitching posts and shelter. I like to start with a mixture of red, brown and gold Gracilaria (Ogo) and artfully arrange them around a lush bed of assorted bright green Caulerpa. Caulerpa mexicana is ideal for this, but any of the various long-bladed and plumed or feathery varieties such as Caulerpa sertularioides, Caulerpa ashmedii, Caulerpa serrulata and Caulerpa prolifera would work just as well. The result is a colorful macroalgae garden with a very nice contrast of colors (reds, yellows, greens, and brown) and interesting shapes. A tank heavily planted with macros such as these is a lovely sight and mimics the dwarf seahorse’s natural seagrass habitat well. And the red volcano shrimp will thrive amidst these algaes, feeding on them and sheltering amidst them.
However, live Caulerpa is becoming more difficult to obtain (it's now illegal in some coastal areas) and can be challenging to maintain properly. (Unless it is thinned out regularly and harvested properly, it can go sexual or vegetative en masse, disintegrate, and release harmful compounds into the water that can turn the entire aquarium milky white in a matter of moments.)
A better alternative for you may therefore be to start out with the Macroalgae 6 Pack from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms and then add some lifelike artificial Caulerpa amidst the live plants. As you may have guessed, the Macroalgae 6 Pack includes a half dozen different types of macroalgae that grow well in the aquarium and have different colors -- gold, red, green, brown, yellow, etc. -- so it would make a colorful assortment for a dwarf seahorse tank. Interspersing some of the realistic synthetic Caulerpa plants among the live macroalgae would make them virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, and you would never have to be concerned about them going sexual and triggering one of the dreaded vegetative events I described earlier.
The artificial Caulerpa and synthetic plants I prefer for this are part of the SeaGarden series of "Fancy Plants" by Aquarium Systems. I recommend the following species of the Fancy Plants for a dwarf seahorse tank:
Get several of the Caulerpa mexicana and several of the Caulerpa verticellata Fancy Plants and arrange them together among the colorful Gracilaria (Ogo) and macroalgae to create a beautiful centerpiece for your dwarf seahorse tank. Then get one or two of the smallest size Sargassum fluitans plants (reddish brown in coloration) and one or two of the smallest Sargassum platycarpum (greenish in color) and arrange them together along the rear of the aquarium as background decorations (they are bushy enough to conceal sponge filters, siphon tubes, etc.). That will create a very beautiful synthetic seagrass jungle that your dwarf seahorses will really appreciate. These artificial Fancy Plants are very realistic and lifelike, and the seahorses can't seem to tell them apart from the real thing.
They sway in the current just like the real plants and are very easy to clean and maintain. Just rinse them well under warm water when they need cleaning.
Before you put them in your aquarium, I recommend rinsing the Fancy Plants thoroughly under warm water and then soaking them in a bucket of clean tap water for several days, changing the water every day throughout this period to keep it clean and fresh. After the artificial plants have soaked for several days in this manner, you can give them another good rinse under warm water and then arrange them in your aquarium.
All of the SeaGarden Fancy Plants I mentioned above are available online from Drs. Foster and Smith at the following URL:
When it comes to the live macroalgae (living marine plants), you can get various species of Ogo (Gracilaria) from Ocean Rider, but for more color and variety, there are a number of other places to order suitable live plants online.
For example, Inland Aquatics has perhaps the best selection and variety of macroalgae available:
But I would suggest starting with the Macroalgae 6 Pack from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms. It includes six different types of algae that grow well in the aquarium and have different colors -- gold, red, green, brown, yellow, etc. -- so it would make a colorful assortment for a dwarf seahorse tank. They are also a good source for the Mini Stars, which are tiny little brittle starfish that stay small and make active, interesting tankmates for dwarf seahorses.
Florida Pets also offers a good selection of macroalgae and marine plants, but they collect their specimens from the wild and they are therefore only available seasonally. But besides the plants, they are a good place to obtain the dwarf pipefish and the micro stars that make such good companions for Pixies and dwarf seahorses:
The Merman's Shaving Brush (Penicillus capitatus) and the sea cactus (Halimeda spp.) are very interesting marine plants that look great in a dwarf seahorse tank, but they are quite a bit more challenging to raise than Gracilaria or Caulerpa macroalgae. They require a certain level of calcium in the water and may not thrive in the small dwarf seahorse setups. So if you want to try these particular plants, I would suggest getting the artificial shaving brush and sea cactus plants (SeaGarden Fancy Plants) by Aquarium Systems instead.
Best of luck aquascaping your dwarf seahorse tank to create a lush undersea garden for your point-sized pigmy ponies, hartsafire!
This is what I normally advise hobbyists regarding tankmates for dwarf seahorses:
Tankmates for Dwarf Seahorses
Although their small size does indeed limit the suitable tankmates that can be kept with dwarf seahorses, I have found small pipefish do well with H. zosterae. I have a pair of small Gulf Pipefish (Syngnathus sp.) from Florida in my dwarf tank, which add a lot of interest to the aquarium because their behavior is so different from the dwarves (Giwojna, 2005). For example, when they're just trying to blend into their surroundings, the pipes orient themselves vertically, heads up and tails down, and sidle up alongside a fake gorgonian or a tall clump of sea cactus, imitating one of the branches. It's not a bad bit of camouflage, and once in a while one of the seahorses perches on a pipefish by mistake and gets taken for a wild ride, like a bareback bronco rider at a rodeo.
But when they're hunting, the pipes slip into the beds of Caulerpa horizontally, and launch themselves like torpedoes at passing prey (Giwojna, 2005). Unlike the seahorses, which prefer to wait for their prey to come to them, the pipes dart out from hiding and snatch up brine shrimp right and left. It's amazing how much faster and more agile they are than the pigmy ponies. At feeding time, the pipes go blasting around the tank like little guided missiles. Fortunately, with just two pipefish in the tank, they can't make a serious dent in the swarms of Artemia.
Like the seahorses, these pipefish are livebearers and give birth to independent babies that are miniature replicas of themselves, except that the newborn pipes are totally transparent (Giwojna, 2005). They look like glass splinters or tiny transparent threads. Although I never made a serious attempt to raise them, a number of them survived for several weeks when left to their own resources in the dwarf tank. They were very good at concealing themselves amid the macroalgae, and especially liked to take refuge amongst the "bristles" of my Merman's Shaving Brushes. The dwarf seahorses have no interest in them whatsoever, but I strongly suspect the parent pipes are cannibals. All in all, Gulf pipefish are inexpensive and entertaining additions to my dwarf seahorse setup.
For a nice splash of added color and natural beauty, I also like to add an assortment of Feather Dusters (Sabellastatre magnifica and Sabella sp.) amidst my beds of macroalgae. They are the brightly colored flowers blooming among all the greenery of this underwater garden. Feather Dusters are exotic, very showy, entirely harmless, relatively inexpensive, and completely compatible with dwarf seahorses (Giwojna, 2005). They are filter feeders and seem to eat the same newly hatched brine shrimp as dwarf seahorses, but they do best when fed phytoplankton (or commercial food preparations designed for filter-feeding invertebrates) with a baster from time to time.
The Lettuce Nudibranch (Elysia crispata, formerly known as Tridachia crispata, and still usually sold under that name) is another showy, totally innocuous invertebrate that's a perfect choice for a dwarf seahorse companion. It is green with lavender spots and is covered with extravagant frills and ruffles that look like flower petals on an exotic orchid, but in fact they are the ruffled flaps of tissue (parapodia) that outline each side of the back of this two inch sea slug that lives in the waters of the Caribbean and Florida Keys (Giwojna, 2005). It's an algae eater that dineson macroalgae such as Caulerpa sertularioides and is one of the few nudibranchs that do well in the aquarium, particularly a dwarf tank with a lush bed of Caulerpa (Giwojna, 2005).
I also have a handful of Volcano shrimp or Hawaiian red feeder shrimp (Halocaridina rubra) in the tank, not as food for the dwarf seahorses but rather as their tankmates. These colorful little saltwater shrimp resemble miniature peppermint shrimp, and usually do well with dwarves because of their size. They are too big to be eaten by the seahorses and too small to be any threat to them, and as an added bonus, they will produce larval shrimp that are perfect treats for the ponies. They are omnivores that do a fair job of scavenging and complement the regular clean-up crew nicely (Giwojna, 2005).
Along with the Volcano shrimp, Nassarius snails and Scarlet Reef hermit crabs (Paguristes cadenati) can serve as the cornerstones of the clean-up crew for dwarf seahorse tanks. The Scarlet Reef micro-hermits are colorful and interesting in their own right, and these harmless herbivores are the only hermit crabs I trust with my dwarf seahorses. A few of the colorful Scarlet Reef crabs make nice additions for a dwarf seahorse tank, as do the Nassarius snails, which are very active, efficient scavengers that handle the meatier leftovers.
Most starfish must be avoided when keeping dwarf seahorses because they are a threat to the pigmy ponies and their young, but there are a couple of exceptions to this rule. For example, the Red Bali Starfish (Fromia milliporella) is a small, nonaggressive starfish that feeds primarily on detritus and meiofauna on sandy substrates. The Red Bali Starfish is a tiny species that doesn't grow to more than 3 inches in diameter (most aquarium specimens are only 1-2 inches in arm span). They thrive in a well-established aquarium with macroalgae and a sand substrate.
Also worth considering are the tiny brittle starfish commonly known as Micro-Stars and often marketed as aquarium scavengers or sanitation engineers under that name. They start small and stay small, with a leg span that never exceeds the diameter of a 25-cent piece even when they are fully grown (most of these miniature brittle stars cannot span a 5-cent piece). Their legs are often attractively banded and they are very active and agile scavengers, moving more like miniature octopus that slowpoke sea stars. The micro-stars are fascinating in their own right, but it's best to limit yourself to one or two of them, since they reproduce very quickly when conditions are to their liking.
Of course, if you're going to be using live rock and/or live sand that has been pretreated with fenbendazole in your dwarf seahorse tank, then you will have to do without the feather dusters, starfish, and lettuce nudibranchs, which do not tolerate the medication. But the volcano shrimp, Nassarius snails, scarlet hermit crabs and other tankmates mentioned above would not be affected by the regimen of fenbendazole and would still make good companions for dwarf seahorses in such a tank.
If you contact me off list (PeteGiwojna@aol.com), I have a lot of additional information on keeping and breeding dwarf seahorses that it would be happy to provide for you to help assure that everything goes smoothly.
Best of luck getting your dwarf seahorse tank up and running, hartsafire!
Happy Trails! Pete Giwojna
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I had a quick question about dwarf tankmates. You had said that the OR red shrimp could be tank mates and while I was looking to order them OR said they need a salinity of 1.0114 is that to low for dwarfs or can the shrimp live in a higher salinity. I have a tank with H. Barbouri in it and a seperate tank with dwarfs. I would love to have the shrimp as tankmates for dwarfs and if they breed well occasionally food for the Barbouri. I just wanted to verify what salinity to keep the tank at to have the red shrimp and the dwarfs together. Thanks so much.
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Red feeder shrimp or volcano shrimp, as they are sometimes known, prefer brackish conditions and breed best at reduced salinity (1.0145-1.0168) but they adapt well to full strength saltwater and will survive indefinitely is a marine aquarium.
These tiny red feeder shrimp (Halocaridina rubra) are native to Hawaii where they inhabit underground lava tubes. Brackish pools collect in the cracks, crevices and depressions in the lava below the water table, thus forming the habitat for the shrimp. The brackish water that fills these pools consists of intrusive seawater diluted by freshwater that percolates downward. Because of their lava-tube habit, they are sometimes called Hawaiian Volcano Shrimp.
Native Hawaiians call them Opa'e-ula, and they are unique among the several different species anchialine pond shrimp in being small, social, herbivorous shrimp that feed mainly on algae and bacteria. They are known to feed on insects that drown in the lava tubes. When conditions are favorable, they may feed en masse at the surface in swarms of countless individuals that turn the water red.
In short, sir, just gradually acclimate your red feeder shrimp to the specific gravity of your dwarf seahorse tank and they will make fine tankmates for Hippocampus zosterae. They are the only decorative shrimp that are suitable companions for the dwarfs. All of the other common shrimp species, including ghost shrimp, peppermint shrimp, fire shrimp, and cleaner shrimp, will prey on newborn seahorses and quickly decimate a dwarf seahorse tank.
Also, I should warn you that Halocaridina rubra will not be very useful in providing occasional treats for your Barbs (Hippocampus barbouri). It is very difficult to culture these shrimp in any quantity, since they reproduce slowly and the females only carry 12 to 14 eggs. They spawn but 4 or 5 times a year and produce an average of only 5-10 larvae per spawn. The larvae hatch as free-swimming, yolked zoeae after a brooding period of 38 days. Larval development is abbreviated with four zoeal stages and one megalopial stage occurring before they reach the first juvenile stage. Duration of the larval stages in the aquarium is 24 to 27 days at 22°C-23°C.
Like other shrimp, it is the complicated larval developmental period they undergo, with multiple zoea and megalops stages, that makes the larvae difficult to raise, arcprolife. However, it can be accomplished the same way other decorative shrimp such as peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) are raised. There is a very interesting and informative book that explains exactly how to go about raising such shrimp that I recommend you read. It's called "How To Raise & Train Your Peppermint Shrimp" by April Kirkendoll and they can be obtained at the following URL:
for the Barbouri. I just wanted to verify what salinity to keep the tank at to have the red shrimp and the dwarfs together. Thanks so much.
