Dear Tammy:
Good work eradicating those pesky Aiptasia rock anemones! It sounds like you’ve assembled a very nice colony of peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) — with eight of them, you’re going to have a lot of natural reproduction going on in the aquarium and your clownfish and seahorses will love to snack on the larval shrimp. It sounds like all your invertebrates are thriving and that you’re making excellent progress.
The red and green macros are great, but if you want to add more orange and yellow colors you might consider mushroom corals. Nowadays they are available in a wide range of colors, and I have seen some very nice bright orange and yellow ‘shrooms. The mushroom corals don’t require bright light or strong currents and are considered easy to care for. They might be a good choice for adding a little more color, especially if you can find a mushroom rock that is studded with several colorful colonies of the mushroom coral.
Otherwise, you might have to look into some synthetic corals for nice oranges and yellows. Artificial staghorn coral, octopus coral and pillar coral all make excellent holdfasts for seahorses (SigNature Coral Corporation). They look entirely natural and lifelike, with lots of branching projections that make great hitching posts for seahorses. Also, synthetic tube sponges and finger sponges are often available in orange or yellow colors and are much favored by seahorses.
I would say that you are ready for your "Nemo" clownfish (Amphiprion occelaris) anytime now, and I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t add seahorses to your tank in the next few weeks, Tammy.
Best of luck aquascaping your new seahorse setup to create the ideal environment for your ponies, Tammy!
Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna
Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
