seahorses into existing tank

[supernareg]

i have a well established tank (2 years+) 26gal long and it only has a pair of snowflake clowns and 1 blue chromis lol. it's a reef tank. it has a CPR bakpak skimmer and everything in the tank is very stable at the moment.

i want to add maybe 2-4 seahorses to it. good idea or bad? i'm a very experienced reefer (many years, tanks). what do you guys think?

 

[Easyflip]

I did add 2 seahorses to my 30 gal reef. I trained them to eat frozen mysis out of a seashell bowl and the other fish don't bother them. However they're messy eaters and dirty in general. I lost a gorgonian because they clung to it all the time and it stopped opening. Nitrates and phosphates are up too. I think they're better off in a species only tank.

 

[rayjay]

First of all, the chances of success in keeping seahorses in a tank are reduced by having too small a tank, tank mates that can pass pathogens to them that they haven't been exposed to while growing up, and by insufficient husbandry to clean the dirty water they produce.
The clowns and chromis would definitely be a no no, especially if they are already mature.
Your tank size is a little small even for having just one pair of seahorses and nothing else. Min. recommended size is 29g for one pair of standards and 15g extra for each additional pair.
I'm a 20yr veteran of reefing and I had many problems when I started and I describe the early days in My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping and below my writing there are a bunch of links to other pieces written by experienced keepers and probably the most respected seahorse breeder in the US, that can put you on to the best way to have the best chances of success.

 

[supernareg]

thanks! i'm deciding that SH's arent for me.. too much work and i cant keep up with feeding them 2xday