ERF! This is not something you are going to like, I'm afraid. A 14 gallon biocube is too small for horses. It's true they don't move around alot but they still need their space. Not to mention they are a huge bioload. I can't tell you the difference of moving my newest additions from their 10 gallon tank. They were existing quite fine.... for a whole year in a 10 gallon uncycled tank. Actually I had 2 uncycled tanks for a year. One was some erectus babies that I raised and the other was some Reidi that I had purchased from
Seahorse Source, the ultimate place for captive bred seahorses.. In their 10 gallon tank they just sat there, never interacted much, no one paired off. Now that they are in a more appropriate size tank, all of them have paired off and are producing babies.
A general rule of thumb for breeding horses is to have a tank height that is 3 times their length from crown to uncurled tail tip. They need it for their full courting behaviour. It's not impossible to have a pregnancy in a shorter tank but the odds are against you. Like in my short 10s... a whole year nothing... and then within a week the first male was pregnant after the move.
Are you looking for horses they are "easy" to raise or one that has a huge learning curve. Many dedicated people have been trying for years to raise certain species and still have not succeeded. Southern erectus are by far the easiest to raise, are well priced, and are available CB. As I said above, I buy mine from
Seahorse Source, the ultimate place for captive bred seahorses..
Seahorses turn whatever color they want to. All those little black horses you see at the
LFS, most of them will change color when moved to a more appropriate tank. And on the same note, don't buy a seahorse for it's brillant color, you may see a drastic change once again when you move them to your tank. There are a multitude of reasons why they do this.
You tank is a little warm for horses. We like to keep them below 75. Yes it's true horses live in warmer climates than this, but we are suspecting higher temps causes the multiplication of harmful bacteria to excel.... a certain bacteria that horses seem to be really susceptiable to. In the summer months we get a lot of visits to the Seahorse Emergency Room and over the years we can see a direct link to the increased temps.
Clams are not recommend seahorse tankmates. They are tail draggers and can sustain injury from a clam who shuts his shell too fast.... it's happened.
HTH, I know it may not be what you wanted to hear. There are a few groups of people you have a different opinion on some of this stuff.
