Seahorses in Reef Tank

[FZ1Rider]

We're not tied to this but my wife and kids would love a seahorse or two. I'm more into corals than fish so as long as the fish can live peacefully together and with the corals I have no problems.

I'm considering getting 1 or 2 Kuda Seahorses from liveaquaria.com. They list them as reef compatible and ok with docile fish. What does everyone here think?

Here is a current inventory of my tank:

2 true percs
1 cleaner shrimp
1 mandarin (planned but a must, waiting for pods to increase)
1 sun coral
1 toadstool leathers
1 kenya tree
3 sets of zoanthids
1 maxima clam
shrooms,
1 very tiny (grew from the LR) xenia that I hope to keep
bunch of bristle worms
plus all the other standard hitchhikers you would find.

BTW as far as the mandarin I plan to wait 6 months before getting on but is there a sign that it is ok to get one? The sides in my tank are covered with copepods. I have to brush them away with my magnet cleaner to even get a clear view of things sometimes. The down size is that I don't have a fuge yet. I just have a sump but I'm in process of building a 29 gallon tank into a sump/fuge. Like I said I'm very patient but I'm just curious.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[murfman]

Sea Horses like to anchor on corals. Any corals that have a sting will not be good for the ponies. The mandarin is going to compete with the ponies for food. The Sea Horses spend all day hunting pods, as does the mandarin.

 

[BradsOcean]

sea horses are better for a species tank

 

[FZ1Rider]

Yeah that's what I thought (species tank). I figured I'd run it by everyone here in case anyone had success. LA claims that they are trained to eat mysis but I take that with a grain of salt anyway.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Joshua1023]

If I were you I would post on the seahorse forum w/ your exact list. I am certain that if you have it in your heart to keep seahorses that the people on that forum will be able to tell you what you can and can't keep w/ them. I do know that sps corals are right out because the flow that you will want to keep the sps will be way too much for the seahorses to handle.

 

[Paintbug]

another thing is seahorses dont like a lot of flow, which is important in a reef tank.

 

[papagimp]

You may see lot's of pods now, but that's normal when new tanks are set up. After a while of maturation, the populations will usually die off as they consume their food sources. Regular additions of phytoplankton will make a big difference keeping their numbers up. Plus you will need a fuge of sorts in order to maintain their numbers or the mandarin/seahorses will eradicate them quickly.

 

[FZ1Rider]

Thanks, I'll post over there. I think I'm just going to tell my wife if she wants the seahorse she'll need to let me set up another tank . I'm not tied to it. Oh an btw, I kew I forgot something. We do have a SPS as well.

Thanks for the info on the pods papagimp. I am dosing DT's phytoplankton. About a capful every other day right now. I'll be posting the plans for the fuge sometime soon. I'm still trying to figure out if it's worth having a space for a skimmer in the sump even though I'm using a hang on skimmer now.


Peter

 

[tagraham]

one of the most important things with the seahorse tank is temp your reef tank is about 80 and SH will only do well in 72-74. plus they are not fast swimming fish and will be terrorized by the other fish in the tank. oh and the sps wont work with the sH as with most corals they can sting and kill the SH. if you decide to build a SH tank tank to the guys on the Sh forum they will hook you up