One thing I've learned the hard way is even if you think your intake is covered well enough not to suck them up check again and again. I had a fluval view for my first dwarf tank and covered the filter intake with pantyhose. The filter was too strong for the little tykes and sucked their tails into the sides. Horrified, I rushed out and purchased a small picotope with a standard hang on filter and put a sponge curler on the intake. Normally the weak current from the filter is a bad thing but for dwarves it is ideal.
So to refrain from writing a full novel here, I'll make a list
Getting Started
1) Captive bred is the way to go as all seahorses are threatened in the wild
2) Small tanks are best (These guys only grow to about an inch)
3) A filter that does not generate much current is ideal.
4) Cover intakes
WELL
5) Before purchasing dwarves, have well-established cultures of brine shrimp and copepods which you can feed spirulina (both spirulina and cysts can be purchased from
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/
6) Live sand and brine shrimp have been heard to carry hydroids and hydroids are deadly to little dwarves
Continued Care
1) Dwarves need to be fed
DAILY with only live foods (that's all they'll accept from what I've seen)
2) Babies are born able to eat live Baby brine so can be housed with their parents
3) Rinse filter media often because brine shrimp an copepods get caught in it and can fowl the small tank fast
