What corals for Seahorse tank????

mjg1961

mjg1961

New member
I have a pair of seahorses (hippocampus erectus) for about a month now. I would like to start adding a few corals to the tank to add some color. I just read on a website that some corals are not safe for seahorses and to also stay away from zoanthids because they sting them (Is that true regarding the zoo's?). It indicated that mushrooms and leathers are ok as well as gorgonians. Looking for some guidance on what corals are safe for seahorses. Need to be suitable for nano's since I have them in a 28G nano. Was hoping to just add some frags from my main display tank but now I am not sure what corals are appropriate.
 
By the way, I currently have PC lighting (JBJ28 nano). Toying with the idea of upgrading to an LED hood in the spring when the temperatures here in New Jersey get warmer. Right now I am able to keep the tank around 73-75 degrees but I am concerned about the summer and will most likely have to do something to keep the water temperature down (possibly a chiller but would rather not).
 
Great resource:
http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates/tankmates.shtml

Most soft corals are fine: zoas, paly's, kenyas, leathers, mushrooms (not the huge ones), ricordia, gorgonians, xenia, green star polyps, etc. I'd recommend staying away from non-photosynthetics since the seahorses already put a higher load on the system and they require feeding.

They'd be fine with your lighting too, I think.

Anything with long tentacles or sweepers is bad, frogspawn, hammers,. But that leaves quite a few LPS and SPS, but those are harder to keep and I'd guess need higher temps, higher lighting but I don't see why it wouldn't hurt to try out some of the safe cheap ones and see how they do, that's what I'm planning.

Rick
 
I keep all kinds of softies and a few lps in my seahorse tanks...(reidi and erectus tanks).... hope this helps and gives you some ideas.
 

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euromomtx said:
Beth that's very pretty!
What is the yellow finger thing in the first picture?
Click to expand...

That's the hardest coral that I have ever kept......:lmao:

it's a fake hitch...I always keep one fake hitch in each tank so the horses don't stress the corals too much...
 
Peka said:
I keep all kinds of softies and a few lps in my seahorse tanks...(reidi and erectus tanks).... hope this helps and gives you some ideas.
Click to expand...

Awesome tanks Beth. Thanks for the ideas. I'm anxious to add some color to the tank. I like the fake hitch idea too. My two eat frozen mysis like crazy. Any advice as to what to add to the mysis? I have been soaking it in Kent Zoecon and their appearance has certainly improved since I started that. I also have Selcon.
 
ya to be honist when i saw ur tanks i was like what is that it lokoed luike and sps or somthing. do u remeber were u got it
 
mjg1961 said:
Awesome tanks Beth. Thanks for the ideas. I'm anxious to add some color to the tank. I like the fake hitch idea too. My two eat frozen mysis like crazy. Any advice as to what to add to the mysis? I have been soaking it in Kent Zoecon and their appearance has certainly improved since I started that. I also have Selcon.
Click to expand...

There is no need to soak the mysis in anything. If you want to give them a treat, get some live adult brine and enrich it (dan's feed from seahorse source is fantastic enrichment).....


I bought the hitches at marinedepot.com .... I just got a couple more last week so they still carry them. If you buy them.. get two.. they get dirty fast and that way you can rotate them out as you clean them...Once the horses get used to a hitch like this, they panic when you remove it...lol
 
Oh. I thought I read somewhere that it was important to enrich the mysis. That will certainly make feeding time a lot easier. Thanks again for the help.
 
Oh. I thought I read somewhere that it was important to enrich the mysis. That will certainly make feeding time a lot easier. Thanks again for the help. I have plenty of reef experience but I am a newbie at seahorses and I want to do this right.
 
mjg1961 said:
Oh. I thought I read somewhere that it was important to enrich the mysis. That will certainly make feeding time a lot easier. Thanks again for the help. I have plenty of reef experience but I am a newbie at seahorses and I want to do this right.
Click to expand...

If you were using live mysis or brine,then it is a good idea to enrich them before you feed them to your seahorses. When you try to enrich the frozen mysis, it just washes off when you rinse them. What brand of mysis are you using?
 
Frozen - Hikari. I defrost the cube occaisionally with some Zoecon. Don't know if it helps or not. I do it a couple times a week.
 
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