Dwarf Sea****s, as easy as everyone says?

[fishboy]

Well i've been reading up on these fish and all the sources makes it seem like if you have a 2 gallon tank, some fake plants or something for the horses to anchor on, some salt, a hydrometer, a small filter or even a airstone, the effort to do regular water changes, and a BBS hatchery then these are simple to keep. I've even heard you can add a small liverock. Fact or Fiction? I can only imagine how frequently a setup like that would need to be topped of. Sounds quite simple though, almost to simple to be true. I can only imagine the water conditions in a tank like that.

[TheOldSalt]

So who says they're easy?

Oh riiight...the people selling them. Of course.

Actually, the zosterae dwarfs are probably the easiest seahorses to keep, but they're still seahorses. They will need a lot of topnotch care, but yes, theoretically, they are as easy to keep as you've described. The kicker is just what have you described? As you surmised, a 2 gallon tank is not a stable environment by any means, so you won't be able to get lazy & careless. Also, BBS are a good staple food, but man can't live on bread alone, nor can a seahorse last very long on only BBS. You'll need to fortify those BBS and/or supplement with other stuff like Mysis.

Dwarf seahorses have been sold in little ads in the backs of magazines for decades, right along with sea monkeys. Alas, they've historically been about equally satisfying.

[flamingo]

Ok, I really have to clear some things up here.

First of all dwarf seahorses are actually harder to keep than "regular" seahorses.
Ask anyone and they will tell you to go for regular sized ones first.

Second of all a 2 gallon tank is actually one of the best tanks for them. If you are a beginner to them you should try to get a tank under 5 gallons. This is because they are so small and the fact that it's hard for them to find they're food. In smaller tanks a lesser concentration of food is needed.

Third live rock cannot be put in a dwarf seahorse tank. This becaus emos tof the stuff that come in on live rock pose a big harm to dwarves, hydroids are the biggest threat. Hydroids look like cross between an anemone and a jellyfish. They can attack full grown dwarves but are more known for eating dwarf babies. Just overall hydroids and live rock are a big threat.

Fourth, BBS, or baby brine shrimp, is actually the only food that dwarves are readily sustained on. People have tried cylopeeze and other foods but they aways die. At the moment bbs is the PERFECT food. Mysis shrimp is too big for them, smaller ones nad chunks can be fed but like said they can't survive on it and aren't nearly as good for them as bbs is.
Make sure you have plenty of hatcheries are going at one time and bbs must be fed only up to 5 hours after hatching. After a few hours brine shrimp loose most of they're egg sac and with it most of they're nutrition. If they are preet yold shrimp than selcon or something similar must be fed befor euse, but only after 24 hours since that's when they gain mouths and whatnot.

Seahorses, let alone any fish, are not something you just jump into and think they are easy. Granted dwarfs sometimes aren't as complicated and don't need as much equipment and whatnot but they still are harder than most sw fish.

Overall I would really recommend you get some more experience with sw tanks if you haven't already and read a lot on them. Also if you want some more info just pm and ill giv you a link to a profile I wrote on them.

Also if you really think your going to do it go to seahorse.org, that's really one of th ebest places to start. Dwarf seahorses by Alissa Abbott is a great book, haven't read it yet personally but have heard nothing but great reviews.

Not trying to turn you off from them but they aren't "simple" as you say.