sea horses

donna & david wrote:
hi, im a new marine tank enthusiast. We have a small tank with a clown and a
blenny. (in about 60 litre tank, i think it is anyway)

Im very happy with it, however i would like to know if i can put a sea horse
in with them. Or do i need a bigger tank maybe, or are sea horse not good
with other species.

any help much appreciated
cheers david


Sea Horses are not good tankmates for just about any fish (other than a
other Sea horses or pipefish). They are very slow eaters and most other
fish will out compete them for food so they will end up starving to death.

Kim
www.jensalt.com

Some good tank mates for sea horses, providing you have
adequate space, are yellow head jaw fish, high fined
banded gobies, cardinal fish, and fire fish.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



kim gross wrote on 8/30/2006 4:39 PM:
donna & david wrote:
hi, im a new marine tank enthusiast. We have a small tank with a clown
and a blenny. (in about 60 litre tank, i think it is anyway)

Im very happy with it, however i would like to know if i can put a sea
horse in with them. Or do i need a bigger tank maybe, or are sea
horse not good with other species.

any help much appreciated
cheers david

Sea Horses are not good tankmates for just about any fish (other than a
other Sea horses or pipefish). They are very slow eaters and most other
fish will out compete them for food so they will end up starving to death.

Kim
www.jensalt.com

Wayne Sallee wrote on Thu, 31 Aug 2006:
Some good tank mates for sea horses, providing you have adequate space, are
yellow head jaw fish, high fined banded gobies, cardinal fish, and fire fish.

Mandarin dragonets, too.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
If you're an ant, and you're walking along across the top of a cup of pudding,
you probably have no idea that the only thing between you and disaster is the
strength of that pudding skin. -- Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey [1999]

My local shop also keeps Rainsford's Gobies AKA Court Jester Gobies in
with them and seem to be fine.

Brandonb


Wayne Sallee wrote:
Some good tank mates for sea horses, providing you have adequate space,
are yellow head jaw fish, high fined banded gobies, cardinal fish, and
fire fish.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Wayne Sallee wrote:
Some good tank mates for sea horses [...]

Brandonb wrote on Mon, 04 Sep 2006:
My local shop also keeps Rainsford's Gobies AKA Court Jester Gobies in with
them and seem to be fine.

This actually isn't a good way to tell. Most local fish stores have high
turnover in livestock, plus a good fraction of in-store mortality.

Just as an example, have you ever seen a mandarin dragonet ("goby") in your
local store? They're almost always kept in clear bottomless tanks. Yet we
know, to keep a mandarin alive long term, you need a mature tank with lots of
live rock. Mandarins will generally not eat prepared/frozen food, only live
'pods (which grow in your live rock). Net result: the mandarins in the stores
are generally all slowly starving to death, but may be purchased by a consumer
before they die. If the consumer has a large mature tank, they may find food
there later. If the consumer has a tank that looks like the fish store tank,
they'll die soon enough.

As to your suggestion: peaceful gobies can indeed be good tankmates for
sea horses. But I just wanted to caution that you can't learn much just
because you see that pairing in the store. Those sea horses could well be
slowly starving to death.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
The human spirit is a very hard thing to kill. Even with a chainsaw.

Don Geddis wrote:

Just as an example, have you ever seen a mandarin dragonet ("goby") in your
local store? They're almost always kept in clear bottomless tanks. Yet we
know, to keep a mandarin alive long term, you need a mature tank with lots of
live rock.

The store where I buy fish keeps them in small reef tanks. They're pretty much
adamant about not selling them to people who don't have reef tanks. On of
several reasons I buy my stuff there.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Don Geddis wrote:

This actually isn't a good way to tell. Most local fish stores have high
turnover in livestock, plus a good fraction of in-store mortality.

Agreed. In this case the store owner is as consciencious as he can be.
He always keeps the same types together also.

Just as an example, have you ever seen a mandarin dragonet ("goby") in your
local store? They're almost always kept in clear bottomless tanks. Yet we
know, to keep a mandarin alive long term, you need a mature tank with lots of
live rock. Mandarins will generally not eat prepared/frozen food, only live
'pods (which grow in your live rock). Net result: the mandarins in the stores
are generally all slowly starving to death, but may be purchased by a consumer
before they die. If the consumer has a large mature tank, they may find food
there later. If the consumer has a tank that looks like the fish store tank,
they'll die soon enough.

He usually has 1 or 2 mandarins, but no, he doesn't have any bottomless
tanks. They are always kept in established systems and supplemented with
some copepod-in-a-bottle thing. This, I believe:
http://www.reed-mariculture.com/copepod/

You're right though. Many places aren't as consciencious in caring for
their livestock.

As to your suggestion: peaceful gobies can indeed be good tankmates for
sea horses. But I just wanted to caution that you can't learn much just
because you see that pairing in the store. Those sea horses could well be
slowly starving to death.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
The human spirit is a very hard thing to kill. Even with a chainsaw.

He is not going to be buying bottles of live pods to
supplement his mandarin.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Brandonb wrote on 9/5/2006 9:34 PM:
Don Geddis wrote:

This actually isn't a good way to tell. Most local fish stores have high
turnover in livestock, plus a good fraction of in-store mortality.

Agreed. In this case the store owner is as consciencious as he can be.
He always keeps the same types together also.

Just as an example, have you ever seen a mandarin dragonet ("goby") in
your
local store? They're almost always kept in clear bottomless tanks.
Yet we
know, to keep a mandarin alive long term, you need a mature tank with
lots of
live rock. Mandarins will generally not eat prepared/frozen food,
only live
'pods (which grow in your live rock). Net result: the mandarins in
the stores
are generally all slowly starving to death, but may be purchased by a
consumer
before they die. If the consumer has a large mature tank, they may
find food
there later. If the consumer has a tank that looks like the fish
store tank,
they'll die soon enough.

He usually has 1 or 2 mandarins, but no, he doesn't have any bottomless
tanks. They are always kept in established systems and supplemented with
some copepod-in-a-bottle thing. This, I believe:
http://www.reed-mariculture.com/copepod/

You're right though. Many places aren't as consciencious in caring for
their livestock.

As to your suggestion: peaceful gobies can indeed be good tankmates for
sea horses. But I just wanted to caution that you can't learn much just
because you see that pairing in the store. Those sea horses could
well be
slowly starving to death.

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________

Don Geddis
http://reef.geddis.org/
The human spirit is a very hard thing to kill. Even with a chainsaw.