Spring/Summer 2004

I’ve discovered, since I first adopted 4 dwarves a while back, that these charming, adorable little creatures are addicting! I fell in love with them instantly and decided right then and there I would need more tanks because I knew I’d have more of these wonderful creatures.

So I have three dwarf tanks now, all designed and set up specifically for them. The very first tank I set up for the original 4 dwarves is the 5 gallon Aquascene by Top Fin. This tank initially was set up with a sponge filter that I had been keeping in the sump of one of my other tanks in case I needed a quick start up on a tank. I put in an Azoo Palm Filter about a week after I got them and ran that simultaneously with the sponge filter for about another two weeks. I then removed the sponge filter. This tank is lighted with just a 15w fluorescent bulb. It has an Ebo Jager 75w heater. I also started this tank with just a bit of sand from one of my other tanks so it does have live sand in it. I found some small fake corals around here at various pet shops and department stores. I also put in some grass clusters that the dwarves really love, they spend a large portion of their time in those clusters. There are also some cut outs from craft mesh in there that they seem to like quite well.

The original 4 dwarves turned into quite a few more in this tank and I had a good reason to start up another tank. So I bought a simple 10 gallon tank and began setting that up to handle the increase in the herd. (Just a great excuse for a new tank, I thought!). The 10 gallon is just another Top Fin tank and has the same equipment as the 5 gallon with the exception that there are two Azoo Palm Filters on this tank. Azoo’s are designed for 5 gallon tanks so that is why it was necessary to put 2 of them on it. I like these little filters quite a lot, they are adjustable and work very nicely for dwarf setups since the flow isn’t too strong for them. This tank has black sand in it because I discovered I could not see the babies very well against white sand in the 5 gallon tank. So that change was made here. I picked out the decorations that the dwarves liked the most in the 5 gallon tank and bought more of them for this tank. I added something called "fry grass" to this tank and I didn’t put craft mesh cut outs in this one. Probably about a week ago or so I moved all of the dwarves out of the 5 gallon and into this 10 gallon tank. They had really outgrown the 5 gallon and needed the space. I intend to put more dwarves in the 5 gallon as they are born, since my male dwarf does so dearly love being pregnant!

I also have a third tank I found a great deal on and couldn’t pass up for the dwarves. This one is a 16 gallon bowfront tank. On this one I felt I probably should go with something a little stronger than an Azoo so I got an AquaClear 20 power filter. I like these filters quite a bit too, they are also adjustable and can be slowed down so as to keep the dwarves comfortable. It has an Ebo Jager heater as well. I decorated this one a bit differently than the other two. They still have grass clusters but I added some different types of fake plants and a couple of castles I thought were cute. There’s also a fake rock shelf in this one that I thought might help to take up some of the vertical space in the tank. This tank will give me lots of room for many dwarves.

The horses themselves are pretty lazy little things. They seem to have 2 main purposes in life, eat and procreate. They do both quite well. My male doesn’t like me much anymore since I had to do a pouch evacuation on him a while back. I had an airline in the 5 gallon and he decided to go give birth while hitched to the airline. Somehow the airline got turned up overnight and he got air in his pouch. So he still hasn’t forgiven me for that. The babies which really aren’t babies anymore since they will be 3 months old next week, seem to take great delight in hitching to mom and dad all the time. Sometimes I think they do it just to annoy them, and it works well. I have 13 dwarves right now. Unfortunately I lost quite a few of the last brood he had.. But of the ones I have several of his babies are males and already interested in courting, thankfully they are interested in the original adult females and not their sisters. Once these little boys get going I have a feeling I am going to need all the tanks I have to keep up with them all.

I feed these little sweeties twice a day, always freshly hatched baby brine shrimp. I have the hatcheries staggered so that there is a new one ready for each feeding . I usually add enough brine shrimp to make it look like it is snowing pretty good in the tank. I never really have any leftover at the next feeding that needs to be removed. It is much easier to feed a larger herd than it was when I only had the 4 adults. I decap brine shrimp eggs every time because I believe it increases the nutritional value and I hope to keep the dreaded hydroids from infesting any of my systems. So far I haven’t had any hydroids at all. I do water changes on the tanks about every 4 days or so. I use Catalina brand Real Ocean Water. I dilute the water down to a specific gravity of 1.019 with RO water. I think this real ocean water has been very beneficial to my dwarves. Since I keep the lights on in this tank for 12-13 hours per day algae grows quickly so I also scrub off any algae that has grown at this time and clean out the filters. I hope to add some small snails to this tank soon to help control the algae growth but as yet I haven’t gotten that done. The horses hate it when I clean but it has to be done! About once a month or so I replace the padding in the filter as well.

All seahorses are special, but dwarves definitely hold an extra special place in my heart. They are enchanting little creatures. I feel that I have a responsibility to take the best care of them that I possibly can and I go to any lengths I possibly can to ensure their happiness. I believe dwarves can be a wonderful addition to anyone’s home as long as they understand their needs and are willing and able to provide for them. It can be a lot of work to hatch brine shrimp daily and clean up their tanks and all that is involved but I think it is more than worth it. These horses rely on me for everything they need and I would be letting them down if I didn’t do my best for them. I think seahorses are much smarter than we sometimes give them credit for and I take that into consideration and treat them accordingly.

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