What can a sea-horse room with?

CMaddog

New member
I am wanting to setup a new tank. I took mine down a few years ago because I was graduating from school and didn't want to transfer it. I am hoping to do a 250 - 300 gallon Reef tank. I was wanting to have Seahorses in it for a couple of reasons. I like little peaceful fish, and seahorse are as peaceful as they come, they are very beautiful, and it is different from all of the tang/angel combos we see all the time (not that they aren't cool, just wanting to be different), also they have tons of captive bred/raised options. Less impacts on the reefs. My question is what else can live with the sea horse? Can firefish? shrimp gobies, jawfish, anthais, mellow clowns like skunks? Thanks for any info, again this is just in the planning stage, and I won't do it if it won't work. Just thought I would put it out there, and study a bit more before setting up.
 
A few peaceful fish can certainly live with Seahorses: Firefish, jawfish, ocellaris clowns, pipefish... a few others. Few corals are safe for horses though... anything that can sting or grab is not good.... or anything that would get irritated if a horse hitched onto it... So most LPS, SPS and softies are out. Definitely no anemones!

The perfect tankmate for a seahorse is macroalgae or seagrass... very natural for them.
 
You could do a great big seahorse tank with a few of the fish mentioned above. In that size of a tank, you could easily get 40 normal sized horses. It would be a very impressive herd.
 
yeah, another 200+ga SH tank, I got a 215ga show tank, just for my horses and pipes, is great

plant your tank, if you like the look, horses love it and the pod population is crazy

I got so much culerpa, mexicana and micro is not even funny, but my horses are healthy fat and spoil :)

also if you can get tonga branch rock or pickanee, as LR, horses hitch to it and it looks great, I got a single piece, that weight over 70 pounds and is the local horse hang out

good luck, post some pics

JP
 
Hey, this looks like the beginnings of a good intro thread. I was thinking of setting up a seahorse nano with tonga branching LR and seagrass. Now, I think I will. Thanks seahorse reefers.
 
Just remember that although other fish may be peaceful enough to live with seahorses, they will probable starve you seahorse. Because seahorses are so peaceful, they are not aggressive eaters. Usually if you have fish present in a seahorse tank they will eat all of the food before the seahorses have a chance at it. I would recommend against mixing seahorses with any fish. You can use hermits, snails, and starfish safely. You may think of doing a smaller seahorse only tank, I think you will have much better results.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7902236#post7902236 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeaHorseMaShell
Just remember that although other fish may be peaceful enough to live with seahorses, they will probable starve you seahorse. Because seahorses are so peaceful, they are not aggressive eaters. Usually if you have fish present in a seahorse tank they will eat all of the food before the seahorses have a chance at it. I would recommend against mixing seahorses with any fish. You can use hermits, snails, and starfish safely. You may think of doing a smaller seahorse only tank, I think you will have much better results.

I would beg to differ though on fish such as jaw fish and daimond gobies that have burrows. They will rarely venture outside the safety of their den to the feeding station in order to steel the seahorse's food. Those are the only exceptions though IMO. But If you did a Great big seahorse tank, who needs other fish. Seahorses have so many different colors that it wouldn't really matter. IMO
 
Probably the highfin gobies, which are very small, and eat the same sorts of things. Too small to grab onto and too small to eat very much of what's offered.

A mandarin, maybe, if the pod population is thick and the seahorses can share.
 
I considered a mandarin once myself. The only problem is that they don't eat frozen food, or at least I've never heard of one that did. I was afraid the seahorses would wipe out the pod population and starve the mandarin. If you decide to try one I would recommend seeding the tank with amhipods about once a month or just whenever you don't see any at night. You can buy them at ocean rider among other places. Good Luck.

As for jawfish, that may be the norm, but mine came out to eat.
 
Beware of lawnmower blennies! The only seahorse death I have had in a couple of years was introducing a lawnmower blennie into my seahorse tank. He killed one of my females. I found her lying on the bottom with obvious attack wounds. Then I saw him attack my other female. I put her in a hospital tank with antibiotics, and fortunately, was able to save her. Needless to say, I gave the evil bleenie away.
 
Don't put a seahorse in a reef.

Typical reef setups have temps that are too high and far to much flow. As already mentioned, most corals are not seahorse safe.

The best tank mates for seahorses are a few more horses, imo. They are very social creatures and truly interact with each other.

Todd
 
Todd. dude... mine is a seahorse reef, just build it for them, is possible if you remember to build it with your horses in mind, like I did

good luck

JP
 
i think you would be ok with most gobies, jawfish, and maybe pipefish, some people say don't house seahorses and pipefish together because of disease. Some people have no problems. there are a ton of small gobies out there ( neon, clown, red head gobys,clingfish) that would be pretty interesting with seahorses.
 
I also second MSAreef, lawnmowers bleenies, will chomp on a horse, I have remove mine for that reason.

I was going to fry it(yeah I know, but he attacked the horses first), but a transfer to the reef tank was in order, he bothers no one there.
 
I also second MSAreef, lawnmowers bleenies, will chomp on a horse, I have remove mine for that reason.

I was going to fry it(yeah I know, but he attacked the horses first), but a transfer to the reef tank was in order, he bothers no one there.

although the reasoning is there for not putting pipes with horses, I have been very lucky in that aspect, I got 6 differrent kinds of pipes and 5 different species of horses living happy togehter
 
How about Ricordia?

Saw the most awesome Ric tanks with a couple Sea Horses in the than with it... looked amazing and would love to duplicate something like it in a 12g Nano Cube...

Possible?

Stidd
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7924988#post7924988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stidd
How about Ricordia?

Saw the most awesome Ric tanks with a couple Sea Horses in the than with it... looked amazing and would love to duplicate something like it in a 12g Nano Cube...

Possible?

Stidd
Rics are fine with seahorses. I have them in both my seahorse set ups.

However, a 12 gallon nano is not a good size for any of the readily available species of seahorse. It may work for a shorttime, but the horses will outgrow it in a short time. Minimum tank size I would reccomend for any of the larger species would be a 29 gallon.
 
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