Clean up crew with Sea Horses

[bluetang<3]

I have been doing a lot of reading and it seems the seahorses are to be regularly fed. Seeing a lot of users adding a bunch of food for them to eat then syphon out the rest. I wont have the time all the time to remove excess foods. So would i be ok with slower moving/eating fish to clean up extra foods or am i better getting snails?
I dont imagine a guy would want to put in hermit crabs with the seahorses but would snails and such be ok?

Thanks

 

[scadsobees]

A couple of peppermint shrimp and a few nassarius snails would do the trick.

I spot feed mine, and what they don't eat I swish toward the paly's.

I haven't gotten up the nerve yet to introduce any fish, but I 'd like a firefish and a couple of banghai cardinals.

Rick

 

[Allmost]

I place a plate on the sand, and drop food in there while all pumps are off ....

the seahorses eat and leave, and I remove the plate with all the food.

I also have 2 peppermint shrimps in there in case some mysis dropps off the plate.

but be carefull with shrimps, they can and will steal food from the seahorse ! too small and they will become food for seahorse, also some may bother seahorses, so be carefull with those, and observe how they are for a couple days.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

The major problem with fish and seahorses in the same tank is getting food to the seahorses. You shouldn't be overfeeding and needing to siphon, and the easiest way not to overfeed is not to have other fish in the tank.

Jeff

 

[Reefbuoy]

My shrimp steals food from my clowns, the nassarius snails would be a good cleanup crew but not too many.

 

[bluetang<3]

Thanks guys i am thinking maybe 5 or 6 nassarius snails. 50 gallon tank around an inch or so of sand i think they should be sufficient. They seems to reproduce like mad for me anyhow. Had 2 in my frag tank within 6 months had 16

 

[DrewReefBuilder]

I use 2 Coral banded shrimp, 6 peppermints, and 2 skarlet skunk cleaner shrimp and chocolate chip seastar. I also have a few misc, snails and small hermy's...

 

[rayjay]

I would consider that to be living dangerous with coral bandeds and possibly the chocolate chip seastar.
I found that cleaner shrimp irritated the seahorses to much in my tanks.

 

[wdt2000]

Many fish are fine imo, what did you have in mind? I have a few different types in my main seahorse tank. My new snail of choice is Ilyanassa obsoleta, mainly because I can collect them for free and they seem to thrive with the seahorses.


@DrewReefBuilder Is there any interaction with the Coral Banded and the seahorses?

 

[DrewReefBuilder]

Actually they all seem to get along fine.... I rarely see them out. I have a large coral/live rock arch in the middle of the tank and the bandeds tend to not move from the arch, they all stay hidden vs. the seahorses that tend to move around the tank and they are all pretty active. And to be honest anything smaller will be food for the pony's. So alot of the shrimp I have are kinda scared...

 

[namxas]

I'm with rayjay on this...I wouldn't put CBS or CC's with SH on a bet. I kept a CBS for about 8 years, and the bigger and older it got, the crankier it became and it would grab anything that ended up in range of its claws.

As for cleaners, they often pester SH in their "insistence" to clean them.

CC's are opportunistic omnivores and if they happen upon a sleeping SH, they'll make a meal of them sooner or later.

JME/JMHO

 

[DrewReefBuilder]

Im planning to move them out when they get much older but for now they all seem fine, when I got them from Sea dwelling Creatures they were so tiny, and they still are very small and they almost get bullied by the ponys. But I'll keep an eye on them for sure just for saftey. Thanks

 

[DrewReefBuilder]

(sorry It got cut off) For the suggestion, and for that chocolate star ill watch him to, I always try to keep them all fed and safe and just because there is so much food in the tank left over from the ponys I hope that it all keeps them full and prevent each other from bugging each other. But Im even actually thinking of getting rid of the cbs just because there so boring, they never come out and its like I never even bought them,