How to adjust for ponies and when to remove other fish.

Knight_Solaire01 · May 25, 2020

Hello everyone. So I have been in the long process of preparing a seahorse friendly 32 gallon biocube tank. Currently the only FISH fish that I have are two damsels. I will of course remove them before I put in the horses as ponies need very specific tank mates if any at all, and damsels are incredibly mean and territorial. My question is can I remove the damsels up to a week before the ponies arrive and go into my tank? Is it okay to just leave the cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs, and brittle star in there? I ask as I want to know if the helpful bacteria created from the fishes waste is needed or will stick around that long when I already have a protein skimmer running. Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Spare time · May 25, 2020

You can remove them whenever, As long as you put some food in there I wouldn't worry.

Knight_Solaire01 · May 25, 2020

Spare time said:
You can remove them whenever, As long as you put some food in there I wouldn't worry.

I will also see about adding some pods as they went away after a few water changes. And I will only have one water change between now and getting the ponies. They eat them too, right?

ThePurple12 · May 25, 2020

No, pods are far too small for seahorses unless you’re talking about amphipods. If you want live food, Mysis, amphipods, and saltwater grass shrimp are great.