What corals will go well with pipefish and seahorses

Matthewr93 · Jul 7, 2016

I am going to start a tank and I wanted to do pipefish and seahorses but not sure what corals would do well. Thanks

trio91 · Jul 7, 2016

ive seen people use gorgonians in tanks...the seahorses can wrap their tail around them

Baby Ray · Jul 7, 2016

Macro algae does very well in seahorse tanks because it looks good and it also helps remove ph and nitrates

vlangel · Jul 9, 2016

I have a seahorse tank with soft coral, leathers, palys, zoas, gorgs, and macros.

scabbedwings616 · Jul 9, 2016

I have a lot of coral in mine from digi, zoas, Kenya tree, sponges, acans etc. all are doing good and healthy. My seahorses leave my sps corals alone and mainly stay on my gongirians. Tanks healthy and looks amazing.

KrazieKiKi · Jul 13, 2016

Matthewr93 said:
I am going to start a tank and I wanted to do pipefish and seahorses but not sure what corals would do well. Thanks

I've got a little bit of everything in mine and all seem to be doing well

mushrooms are going crazy lately and I just started experimenting with an orange sponge that's making my life difficult right now [emoji53]

dogshowgrl · Jul 14, 2016

You haven't had a problem with a bivalve? I want one but I think it is going to have to go in the mixed reef not the pony barn.

dogshowgrl · Jul 14, 2016

@KrazieKiKi You haven't had a problem with a bivalve? I want one, but I think it is going to have to go in the mixed reef not the pony barn.

@Matthewr93 Anything with a sting I rule out, which is most LPS. SPS is hard to keep happy with the large amounts of food the ponies will need and the high volume of waste they produce, the nitrates tend to stay to high for the SPS liking. I stay away from anemones. Start like any other reef, SLOWLY. My tank is still a baby but we are starting to get there. Leathers, toadstool, GSP, Sympodium, Sponges, Macros, zoas, and Gorgonians is the start of mine, but I am picky. Some do goniporas due to the low sting, but I can't imagine it would be successful long term with such a sensitive coral.

KrazieKiKi · Jul 14, 2016

dogshowgrl said:
@KrazieKiKi You haven't had a problem with a bivalve? I want one, but I think it is going to have to go in the mixed reef not the pony barn.

@Matthewr93 Anything with a sting I rule out, which is most LPS. SPS is hard to keep happy with the large amounts of food the ponies will need and the high volume of waste they produce, the nitrates tend to stay to high for the SPS liking. I stay away from anemones. Start like any other reef, SLOWLY. My tank is still a baby but we are starting to get there. Leathers, toadstool, GSP, Sympodium, Sponges, Macros, zoas, and Gorgonians is the start of mine, but I am picky. Some do goniporas due to the low sting, but I can't imagine it would be successful long term with such a sensitive coral.

I started with an easy care clam. For the most part my derasa clam has done great. I dose weekly for calcium and alk. My nitrates stay around a 25-30ppm so he's pretty happy. Iodide a couple days a week (for macros too) I've had him since I got the ponies in late April. Still new technically speaking but no gaping and he responds well to light changes.

dogshowgrl · Jul 14, 2016

I was talking about him closing on tails! It makes me nervous! He looks great! I dosed all about iodine, but after this vacation I think that will start. Thanks!

KrazieKiKi · Jul 14, 2016

dogshowgrl said:
I was talking about him closing on tails! It makes me nervous! He looks great! I dosed all about iodine, but after this vacation I think that will start. Thanks!

Nah. They don't snap shut that quickly to cause issues...at least from what I've seen. The clam is in a moderate current and I keep plenty of hitches around -the SH's prefer versus trying to anchor on him. That's what all the plastic black chain is for. It's been awesome watching them sway in the current. You can tell they enjoy it! I was just using them as a hitch option for them until I get some plumes in there but I think I'll keep them [emoji5] kinda like the industrial / shipwreck look they bring

KrazieKiKi · Jul 14, 2016

Also - dose IODIDE not iodine. There's a huge difference in what your macros will readily utilize and you can cause some serious damage if you overdose the wrong things. Just a heads up - if you use iodine it can kill of live rock and cause just about every test to spike. Just a courteous FYI

vlangel · Jul 17, 2016

Not contradicting your posiitive experience with a clam kraziekiki but they are not recommended with seahorses on the compatibility chart on seahorse.org. I do know that chart is considered a bit outdated but I was afraid to risk a clam with my ponies.

pga7602 · Jul 21, 2016

This is an interesting topic. Following.

KrazieKiKi · Jul 23, 2016

vlangel said:
Not contradicting your posiitive experience with a clam kraziekiki but they are not recommended with seahorses on the compatibility chart on seahorse.org. I do know that chart is considered a bit outdated but I was afraid to risk a clam with my ponies.

I did my research and only found one person reported having actually had a clam close on a SH tail. It was a large maxima clam. While I won't preach that every tank would be safe with a bivalve I think I put enough thought and research into the placement of mine. They're safe. Bivalves. Wild caughts. Mixed ponies. Several Clown gobies. Defying the odds daily *knock on wood*

tjdouglas · Aug 4, 2016

Just mentioning my own experience for what it's worth. I had a seahorse/maxima clam encounter that ended badly for both when my seahorse tried to snick a piece of mysis shrimp that had landed on the clam's mantle. The clam shut on the seahorse's snout and the more the seahorse struggled the more the harder the clam clamped down on him. Although the seahorse eventually got free after a couple of hours, both seahorse and clam ultimately died the next day.

jayleah · Mar 2, 2020

vlangel said:
I have a seahorse tank with soft coral, leathers, palys, zoas, gorgs, and macros.

I realize this is an old post, but I'm in the process of setting up a seahorse tank and I want to put in the same type of corals you mentioned, any suggestions as to what kind of lighting to get?

vlangel · Mar 2, 2020

jayleah said:
I realize this is an old post, but I'm in the process of setting up a seahorse tank and I want to put in the same type of corals you mentioned, any suggestions as to what kind of lighting to get?

Most of those coral are low/moderate light coral except the photosynthetic gorges which need high light. I used a 4 bulb HOT5 fixture. I used a Coralife because its plug and play and I am not tech savvy.