Pipefish and pod population?

[vlangel]

I have a 30gallon XH aquarium that I am dedicating for a pair of seahorses. I cycled the tank in May and seeded it with pods. It has rubble rock in a whisper filter, lots of cheato and calerpa, live rock and sand and the pods have been reproducing unmolested. I will be ordering my seahorses in a couple weeks and I could order a captive bred pipefish at the same time. I'm very tempted but will a stream line pipefish totally decimate my pod population?

 

[rayjay]

IMO, the tank pod population will be decimated with seahorses or with pipe fish.
I'd suggest going with the seahorses only for 6 to 12 months to be sure you are able to handle things over the longer term before adding anything else.
Who's captive bred pipe fish are you looking to buy?

 

[vlangel]

Ocean Rider has CB banded pipefish. On. another forum a fellow seahorse enthusiasist shared that her seahorses were rather lazy about hunting pods. They preferred to eat mysis at their feeding dish twice a day and would only hunt pods if they were conveniently happening by where the ponies were hitched. I am ordering my seahorses from Ocean Rider as well so I know they are CB and trained to eat frozen mysis. From what I understand seahorses vary in personality and temperament so maybe some are industrious hunters and some are lazy bums. I think I will take your advise and only get the pair of seahorses to start with.

 

[rayjay]

I'd suggest you don't count on owning seahorses that DON'T hunt down the pods.
In my twelve years of seahorse keeping, I've had angustus, barbouri, comes, erectus, kuda, reidi and zoestera and zoestera dwarfs were the only ones that didn't actively hunt the pods. (although there were always a few adventurous dwarfs that would)
Have you checked the prices on seahorses from seahorsesource.com?
While they don't have pipe fish, they do have pricing that most times is better than that of OR, and the quality at the least is just as good.
You may already have been advised, don't pay extra for colour as you often find the colour changes once you have the seahorse in your system for a bit.

Marketing strategy or ?
It's odd that to advertise BLACK reidi, the Ocean Rider picture shows YELLOW.
http://seahorse.com/shop/Black-Brazileros-Hippocampus-Redii.html

 

[vlangel]

I'd suggest you don't count on owning seahorses that DON'T hunt down the pods.
In my twelve years of seahorse keeping, I've had angustus, barbouri, comes, erectus, kuda, reidi and zoestera and zoestera dwarfs were the only ones that didn't actively hunt the pods. (although there were always a few adventurous dwarfs that would)
Have you checked the prices on seahorses from seahorsesource.com?
While they don't have pipe fish, they do have pricing that most times is better than that of OR, and the quality at the least is just as good.
You may already have been advised, don't pay extra for colour as you often find the colour changes once you have the seahorse in your system for a bit.

Marketing strategy or ?
It's odd that to advertise BLACK reidi, the Ocean Rider picture shows YELLOW.
http://seahorse.com/shop/Black-Brazileros-Hippocampus-Redii.html

Thanks for all the helpful info. Yes, the whole reason I seeded the tank was in hopes of establishing a population that might be somewhat sustaining so the seahorses could be stimulated by hunting and supplementing their frozen mysis. I tried to design the tank so pods could have hiding places. Who knows, maybe my ponies will eat every single pod in a week, I will just have to see how that goes.
And thanks for the tip on seahorse source. Yes, I knew they were good and more competitive but to be honest I am buying my first pair of ponies from OR because I took the free online training course and I am honoring an implied agreement that I would buy seahorses from them. Perhaps that's old fashioned but its what my conscience dictates. If I buy other seahorses after this pair, I'm pretty sure it will be other CB sources.
Again, thanks for the tip about buying certain colors. I did know that and plan on getting just regular H erectus. I am still up in the air whether to get 2 females or a male and a female. I am not sure I have the time or energy to raise fry but kind of feel like I might be missing out if I get 2 females. I guess only I can decide that. Always appreciate your input, thank you again.