Seahorse, Shrimp in an 8 gallon?

[cubuffs]

I have an 8 gallon nano that currently has a small yellow damsel that is non-aggressive, a blue leg hermit, and a small snail. My wife is DYING to get a colorful seahorse for the tank. I am going to add one, but I love "friendly" cleaner shrimp. Is it a good idea to add a seahorse and a shrimp? What potential problems could I come across?

Thank you in advance. Go Buffs!

 

[ichthyogeek]

Really, the only seahorse that I think would be safe for the nano tank would be a dwarf seahorse, and I'm about 75% positive that the yellow damsel would outcompete the seahorse, and bully it to death. What species of damselfish is it? If you added any other of the commonly traded seahorses, they would probably die from overcrowding. Yes, even adding just one would severely upset the balance in the tank. By friendly cleaner shrimp, do you mean a Lysmata sp. that would clean your hand while said hand was in the tank? While not sure, I think that the shrimp would just eat the seahorse. The dwarf seahorse requires live food, usually supplemented by live baby brine shrimp feedings every day.

 

[rayjay]

Please do a lot of research before getting a seahorse of any species for this tank.
As mentioned, it's a WAY too small for any standard size seahorse, but too large for a dwarf because of the specialized feeding requirements.
Also, I know of NO damsel I would put in any of my seahorse tanks, but especially not with dwarfs.
Shrimp can sometimes work out but the preferred one seems to be peppermint shrimp, although my H. reidi tore mine apart and ate most of the pieces so I never tried another one.
I've seen reports of cleaner shrimp pestering seahorses to the point the stress negatively affected the seahorses.
In a dwarf tank I would suspect possibly the dwarf would be targeted by the cleaner shrimp.
You can glean some starter information on the hobby by checking out the links at the bottom of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping" written by experience keepers and a very helpful breeder.

 

[AdamSabina]

The damsel and sea horse are a bad idea. Not only is personality a problem almost any fish with out compete any seahorse for food :-( sorry seahorse and fish are a bad mix,,, "usually"