Dear Pete,
I am very interested in the program for becoming certified for seahorses, My name is Jessica and I have been in love with seahorses since I can remember, I had many plastic toys of seahorses growing up. I also got my first freshwater aquarium at 10 years old and my aquarium obsession took off, I even did my 6th grade science fair project on reproduction of sea snails and was successful in getting them to reproduce! When I was a young teen and was in a local fish store I laid eyes on a seahorse for the first time, I was in love, spent an hour in the store watching it swim around, I knew in that moment that someday I would have my own. So in 2008 I purchased and set up my first saltwater aquarium, I bought seahorse books and videos and began designing this aquarium to house seahorses, with no internet for me back then all I had for resources was books and the fish store so I fear I was not as educated as I should have been, so unfortunately the seahorses would perish. my old set up was a 30 gallon tall, coral reef tank, all corals where non stinging. as I look back I see what some of my mistakes where, 1. filtration system was very powerful and I would see my horses struggling with the current, 2. not as many hitching posts I had a lot of rock for the corals. 3. I had way too many! 6 in a 30 gallon! water parameters always perfect but I now believe those reasons led to the short life of my seahorses, so because of that that aquarium now only has corals and aggressive fish. I recently back in august set up and old tank I had for saltwater, I then decided it to be my new seahorse tank, it is a 30 as well but is only 16in high. I plan to only house a pair. Substrate is white live sand, 8 large plastic plants to hide and hitch, and 5 bleached hard coral for hitching, a large shell with spikes for hitching to use for a feeding trough, and 6 live plants. I have a hang on refugium, protein skimmer, a covered heater and a hang on aqua clear power filter with adjustable flow for a 70 gallon, I will also be purchasing a aqua chiller in time for summer to keep temps at 74. tank inhabitants are 1 yellow clown goby, 1 dragon face pipefish, 1 Yasha Hasha goby, 1 pistol shrimp, 1 blood red fire shrimp, 2 narssarius snails, 3 blue legged hermit crabs, and 1 tiger sand conch.
I am ready for seahorses again but want everything to be perfect so they can live long and healthy. Thank you in advance.
Jessica
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.
