Fish Inhabitants with Large Seahorses

[rayjay]

*I recommend pipefish with caution. It is best to obtain captive bred pipe fish. Wild caught pipefish can carry pathogens that can harm the seahorse.​

IMO, this is true for ANY fish introduced to a seahorse tank.​

 

[vlangel]

IMO, this is true for ANY fish introduced to a seahorse tank.​

Hi rayjay and welcome to R2R. We have quite a few seahorse enthusiast here and I know your experience will be appreciated.

 

[rayjay]

Thank you for the welcome. After signing up here today, the rest of the day didn't go well though. First I broke a tooth after supper, and just now I fed the seahorse tanks and found a dead male in the abdominalis tank. They were all OK today for the first two feedings and I didn't see anything to be concerned about. Worst deaths are the unexplained ones.

 

[vlangel]

Thank you for the welcome. After signing up here today, the rest of the day didn't go well though. First I broke a tooth after supper, and just now I fed the seahorse tanks and found a dead male in the abdominalis tank. They were all OK today for the first two feedings and I didn't see anything to be concerned about. Worst deaths are the unexplained ones.

O no, I am sorry to hear all that. Teeth...you can't live with them and you can't live without them!

I am sorry for your loss of the abdominalis. I have never experienced an unexplained death yet. Sadly I have been the cause of mine, which is not easy to take either.

 

[Lilcherylpony]

I may have a problem... my seahorses will arrive a day after the fish! I tried to delay shipment for a day or 2 but they already shipped this morning before I saw the notice in my email. Will 1 day make a difference? I have a royal gramma, tailspot blenny and McCloskers fairy wrasse (very peaceful and not as fast of an eater as other wrasses) coming.

A great way to know for sure is to quarantine anything new

 

[Lilcherylpony]

That is good that you have a plan B for any fish that are not compatible.
Yep algae does grow on seahorses. Actually they don't mind and are able to scratch on coral or something when they want to remove some. The only cleaner shrimp that I can suggest without reservation are peppermint shrimp. They rarely clean a seahorse which is a plus. Other species of cleaner shrimp are so over-zealous about cleaning that the ponies are spooked over the whole thing. The one downfall about peppermint shrimp is that if they are small the seahorses view them as dinner rather than tankmates!

agreed! Cleaner shrimp can actually stress the seahorses.

the problem with fish in the seahorse tank is not necessarily one of agression. the faster moving much better swimming fish can outcompete the horses for food. horses take an eternity to eat. i turn off all the pumps in my tank, place their food in the old trydacna shell that serves as their feeding fish, and go upstairs and take my shower and get ready to go out. when i'm done, i turn the pumps back on (actually, i don't, i let alexa do it!!). they are very slow, deliberate feeders who knock more mysis out of the shell than they consume, which is a good thing because they then have to go hunt for it. but be careful about too many fish, particularly fast swimmers, in with the horses. in my tank, i have bangaii cardinals and pj cardinals, dartfish, mandarins, scooter blennies, and watchman gobys. all of these are very mellow and don't mess with the horses.

Yes.....i'm stalking your profile. haha. in a nice way! I'm impressed . You said you didn't know me, so I'm fixing that problem by knowing you .

 

[rayjay]

A great way to know for sure is to quarantine anything new

I find that quarantine of fish not to be the be all and end all because the fish may have pathogens and it's own system is capable of handling the pathogens so that the hobbyist has no idea of possible problems.
If when placed into a display tank after quarantine, it adds new pathogens to the tank, some seahorses with lesser capable immunity may fall victim to those pathogens if they haven't previously been exposed to in order to have some resistance to it.
If I were to be adding a fish after quarantine, I would be treating the Q tank as a hospital tank and dose for whatever possible pathogens I would think might be carried.
For me, it's much easier to just live with species only seahorse tanks, and have separate tanks for whatever else.

 

[Lilcherylpony]

honestly, I personally use TTM "tank transfer method" for fish going into my reef, and I too keep species only tanks when it comes to seahorses. My first 2 years of seahorse keeping, I only bought captive bred seahorses from a breeder that I trust (Dan @ seahorse source), so QT has worked for me thus far, as I merely made sure the seahorses were eating and not stressed before adding to the tank, and they all did great. However, if I attempted to condition a wild seahorse, or even when I bought a seahorse from a different (also trusted....but different nonetheless) breeder, I did proactively treat. TTM or proactive treatment is more efficient, as you just never know. I'm with you Rayjay......I'm just working on being more "open to other opinons"