Ocean held wonderful lives inside – breathing, roaming, and rules the underneath world. People allured to the marvelous and mysterious world, the other world that much different than our limited land. Do not forget that seventy-one percent earth’s surfaces is covered by water – mostly is the oceans, then the rest of it – about twenty-nine percent is land. Therefore, we lived surrounded by the water – in other words, there are still many secrets and unknown lives we did not discover yet.
This fact might surprise you, although about seventy-one percent of earth surfaces was covered by ocean, only approximate about third-teen percent of the world’s seas that remained untouched by humankind. You could imagine, how aggressive human could become. Furthermore, there’s a lot of sea-creatures species that already recognized, such as: seahorse, Spanish dancer fish, the fat animal and the largest underwater creature on earth, the blue whale – are already identified.
However, our mother nature has it owns way to impress us. We think that the wild animal out there was the only creatures that lives beside us, turn out we’re wrong. Recently, there are many new animals have been discovered from the mother nature. New species from mammal to insect, fish and plants had been discovered. That the thing isn’t, no one could stop the evolution on earth. Back to the sea-creature thing, don’t you ever thought to have a pet fish on your own? Something that uncommon and different from ordinary fish (golden-fish, guppies, mollies, swordtails, etc)? Then, let me suggest you to keep a seahorse as a pet.
Is that possible? It is – actually, a lot of people already pet this animal inside the aquarium in their house. For your note, this animal surprisingly pretty easy to keep. Plus, wouldn’t love the colorful and cute appearance of this animal? However, if you still doubt and fear – don’t know how to take care of this animal, don’t be afraid. Today, we would show you how to properly take care of a seahorse in this article: seahorse are your new pets? A proper guide to take care of them.
1. The Proper Aquarium
First thing first, before you buy seahorses, you should prepare a proper tank aquarium as the new house for your pet seahorse.
Purchase an Aquarium
Before you purchase a tank (aquarium), please keep in mind that you can’t just purchase ordinary tank, or a refurbished tank. Remember, that your sea horse are swim vertically, not horizontal like other common fish. So, you need to make sure that the tank is fulfilled the standard measurement for your seahorses. The tank must be at least 18″ tall and could accommodate approximately per-seahorse about 20 gallons of water. Please, don’t forget to wash and make sure that the tank is clear as possible before you put the seahorse inside.
So, the tricks are simple: get the largest tank that you could purchase and you could afford, to make sure that the seahorse could move freely. If you want to save some money, you could consider buying a second hand tank. Also, make sure that the decoration that you add would not throng the tank.
Do Not Put the Tank in Hot Areas
One of the differences between seahorse and other fish is that seahorse prefer places that less-warm and less-light. So, the perfect place for your seahorse is the area which not exposed to extreme temperature and untouched from sun’s direct contact. The proper and health temperature for seahorse to live is around 74° to 76° Fahrenheit which equal with 21° to 25° Celsius. If you do have air-conditioner in your house, you could place the tank in the same room where the air-conditioner was placed – or simply, just put the tank in the most cold room in your house.
Place Substrate
Substrate is important material inside the tank. You need substrate to provide the surface for hook the hitching posts for your beloved seahorse – not only some decoration. You could use small sand and small coral and line the tank’s bottom. But, do remember, monitor how much you put the substrate inside the tank. Too many substrates could be dangerous, in case that the food fall down and trap inside the substrate and create a toxic called hydrogen sulfite which is poisonous for seahorse.
Put the Tank with Saltwater
The last step for preparing the perfect tank for your seahorse is fill the tank with saltwater. You could mix it with clean and dechlorinated fresh water. Wait about two hours to add the salt exactly like guidance instruction.
2. How to Maintain Your Seahorse
Feed the Seahorse
The best food for the seahorse is frozen Mysida shrimp, brine shrimp, and small krill. You could feed the seahorse twice a day – you could give them about 50 shrimp or krill every single meal in the tank. To ensure that the seahorse get the best nutrition and don’t eat the old food that possibility create the toxic, you should siphon the leftovers. Also, you could give your seahorse live diet menu to boost the nutrition.
Monitor their Health
Don’t ever forget to check your seahorse condition every single day. Make sure that their vitality and health is good and no symptoms and out-of-place conditions. One way to check their health is during the feeding time. Some signs that could be the alert of potential problems are: full and round belly, very active than they usually did – like moving around in the tank, clear fins, and bright eyes.
Another symptoms of more serious problem – potentially some diseases are: little eye movement, heavy breathing, cloudy eyes, grey or white inflamed growths, and bloating. At any circumstances, if you ever seen your seahorse have all these symptoms, you should quickly search for help form professional to make sure that your seahorse gets the proper treatment.
Carefully Introduce the Tank Mate
The last lists of seahorse are your new pets? A proper guide to take care of them, is carefully introduced the tank mate.
From Keep in your mind, make animal live alone is cruel. So, you could put another mate as companion is a very good idea. But, you should know, not every species is good for your seahorse, because apparently they could eat your seahorse food. However, I would suggest you the good and perfect companion for your seahorse if you ever consider bringing another species as the companion – these are the lists: tangs, goby, snails, clownfish, limpets, and blenny. Those are the list of the “good” companion for your seahorse.