What type of corals can you put with seahorses?

Palani

New member
I had a misshap with one of my other reef tanks so I had to put some of it's corals in with the seahorses. Right now I've got some zoos, ricordias, mushrooom, xenia, and a small leather. I still need to move more corals so what can't I keep with them?
 
I think you're better off discussing what you CAN keep with them; and I believe that you've got that all covered. Any SPS and LPS are most likely not going to do well with seahorses, or seahorses won't do well with them (depending how you look at it!). The only thing you're missing is star polyps, which also do fine with seahorses.
 
Seahorses aren't really reef creatures. They are found more often on the bay side of reefs, in tidal flats, seagrass beds. They shouldn't be kept with any stinging animals, or anything really pointy (seriously, I know in the wild there are pointy things in the water, but in a tank, between the powerheads and lack of maneurvering room, a couring male could get his pouch ruptured easily on a staghorn). Soft corals like toadstools and finger leathers, non-stinging gorgonians, that's about as far as I'd go with horses.
 
Yes, colt, xenia, kenya tree, shrooms (only the smooth kind if you're keeping dwarf seahorses), most zoos.
 
Eggcellent. I've got colt, a couple zoo's and a yellow gorgonian in my SH tank. The gorgonian is their favorite hitching post.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7561163#post7561163 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenighs
Seahorses aren't really reef creatures. They are found more often on the bay side of reefs, in tidal flats, seagrass beds.
Right, but so are a good deal of the fish we keep in reefs.
They shouldn't be kept with any stinging animals, or anything really pointy (seriously, I know in the wild there are pointy things in the water, but in a tank, between the powerheads and lack of maneurvering room, a couring male could get his pouch ruptured easily on a staghorn).
I have never seen a staghorn thats remotely close to sharp enough to puncture a seahorse/ Agree with stinging animals though. No bubble corals, frogspawns, etc.
Soft corals like toadstools and finger leathers, non-stinging gorgonians, that's about as far as I'd go with horses.

I know people who keep open and closed brains, montipora, etc. These animals are a lot more hardy than most give them credit for.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7588304#post7588304 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
Right, but so are a good deal of the fish we keep in reefs. I have never seen a staghorn thats remotely close to sharp enough to puncture a seahorse/

The problem with SPS corals is the environment you need to keep them in is VASTLY different than what you need to keep seahorses. The water movement is way too much for seahorses, as well as the heat requirements.

Not only that, I would be afraid seahorses would irritate an sps to death by constantly hitching on it. ESPECIALLY if they were hitching because they were being blown around.

I too can't imaging an sps damaging a seahorse, they're much too fragile and those that aren't tend to be blunt. But they still shouldn't be kept together, because one or the other's requirements won't be met.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7588370#post7588370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishGrrl
The problem with SPS corals is the environment you need to keep them in is VASTLY different than what you need to keep seahorses. The water movement is way too much for seahorses, as well as the heat requirements.

Not only that, I would be afraid seahorses would irritate an sps to death by constantly hitching on it. ESPECIALLY if they were hitching because they were being blown around.

I too can't imaging an sps damaging a seahorse, they're much too fragile and those that aren't tend to be blunt. But they still shouldn't be kept together, because one or the other's requirements won't be met.

Have you ever kept montipora digitata? It really doesnt require much flow at all. Its a lagoonal coral. Generalizations are almost always wrong. I tend to find that most acropora tanks can't keep digi alive because theyre too clean.

As to heat requirements, my SPS tank stays at 76, as does the horse tank.
 
Yes, I have several types in my high flow, low 80's reef tank. I have never tried it in a seahorse tank because it would likely end badly.

The vast majority of sps corals are still inapprorpriate for seahorses. Because there is one exception doesn't mean that the whole group is okay with seahorses.

And I would still bet seahorses hitching would end up irritating the flesh right off it where they hitched.
 
Technically, you CAN keep cephalopods in a reef tank. But you're gonna lose either the corals or the cephalopod pretty quick, probably both.

I stand by what I've already said. Seahorses are NOT reef animals. In a captive environment they have little choice as to what they can avoid and what they can't. If you want to see your seahorses active and thriving, keep their environmental stressors to a minimum. Conditions that are optimal for most hard corals are stressful for seahorses.

Oh, and there's ALWAYS somebody that knows someone who's kept seahorses in their lobster tank/sps reef/arctic tundra biotope for ten years and never had a problem.
:rolleyes:
 
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