Seahorse tank mates

[kframe]

It’s not easy to train them to eat like that. But it’s possible. But putting 2 animals with the same eating habits together will not be easy. If the mandarin goes for the pods and outcompetes the seahorses, it won’t fare well.

Pods won't be the only source of food. I will also feed frozen mysis to the seahorse. My lfs also has dragonets that I've seen already eating frozen food.

 

[rayjay]

I have a little 10g cube in our den with Pygmy seahorses in it - getting ready to add a peppermint as I just saw a tiny baby Aiptasia that’s come out of no where, so I think that’s a great addition!
If you’re also adding a dragonet you better have a lot of food natural food source! I’d definitely design the system with a good sized Refugium too, as I’m guess there is virtually no population of pods that a couple ponies and a dragonette couldn’t take down if they don’t have a their own part of the the tank to replenish themselves.

First of all, I'd be interested in what species your "pygmy seahorses" are. I haven't heard of anyone in the world with "pygmy seahorses" but many keepers do have dwarf seahorses, H. zosterae. I'm not even sure that any of the big aquarium companies have had success in keeping pygmies long term as they need special gorgonians to survive I believe.
Second point is to query WHY you feel the baby aiptasia is a great addition. They can be a killer plaque for seahorses, especially for dwarfs.

 

[kframe]

First of all, I'd be interested in what species your "pygmy seahorses" are. I haven't heard of anyone in the world with "pygmy seahorses" but many keepers do have dwarf seahorses, H. zosterae. I'm not even sure that any of the big aquarium companies have had success in keeping pygmies long term as they need special gorgonians to survive I believe.
Second point is to query WHY you feel the baby aiptasia is a great addition. They can be a killer plaque for seahorses, especially for dwarfs.

I dont think he was talking about the aiptasia being a good addition but rather the peppermint shrimp. I dont know about people having them in home aquariums but the California academy of science seems to have pygmy seahorses. If youd like to check them out they have videos on YouTube.

 

[rayjay]

As I said, I didn't know if any of the big aquariums have had any success long term, but I've been in the seahorse hobby since 2002 and have never found any hobbyist that could have access to pygmy seahorses let alone keep them alive with their special needs.
Googling just now showed me that CAS Steinhart Aquarium was the first to succeed in keeping the bargibanti once they mastered the task of keeping the Muricella gorgonians back about 5 yrs ago.
When it's that hard to keep I doubt very much any hobbyist would be able to succeed, at least with current hobbyist equipment and knowledge.
I'm guessing that some people have been told the zosterae they purchased were pygmies when in fact they are just dwarfs.
Thanks for straitening me out on the aiptasia. I re-read it again and indeed that is the case.

 

[vlangel]

Yeah I plan on seeding the tank a couple months in advance with copepods. I'm using the aquatop 40g AIO. So, it would take a little modifications to add a refugium. I was thinking of adding one of those pod motel things. Do these actually work?

I would just seed the pods in the fuge where they will not experience predation. Some will eventually find their way into the display tank. Any type of pod motel has the potential to trap excess food and propagate pathogenic bacteria as well as pods and that scenerio can be deadly to the seahorses.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Are sapphire damsels an ok addition for sea horses in theory this is, as well the ones i have are perfectly peaceful and never show any interest in anything but food and themselves, in a tank with a mandarin ycg and a geometric pygmy perchlet, the only issue i see is outcompeting for food, but im just wondering what others think

 

[rayjay]

I personally would never put ANY damsels in with seahorses.
That being said, I recommend NO other fish in with seahorses until at least you have established that you can successfully maintain them when starting with a sterile species only tank. That point may take a LONG time to come though.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Ive kept tigertails before in a dedicated tank, so i was just curious

 

[vlangel]

Are sapphire damsels an ok addition for sea horses in theory this is, as well the ones i have are perfectly peaceful and never show any interest in anything but food and themselves, in a tank with a mandarin ycg and a geometric pygmy perchlet, the only issue i see is outcompeting for food, but im just wondering what others think

I also would not ever keep damsels with seahorses. After keeping seahorses almost 5 years I now keep my ponies in a specie specific tank. Since doing that I have not had any incidents of disease. When it comes to seahorses, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!