Pipefish, Seahorses ,and Lepord Wrassy Options

[snoop]

I want to house a couple of pipefish and seahorses and possibly a blue sttar lepord wrassy in my 29 gallon bowfront. I am willing to feed the horses and pipes live mysids shrimp.

The thing that worries me is that these fish will be in a reef system so I have to be carful about flow and corals. I currently house Leather Coral,GSP,Blasos,SPS,Clavaria,Rok Anenome,Zoos and a Large Bubble Coral. I also plan to have three clams.

[cpreefguy]

Get in touch with seamonkey2, he could give you the most useful info.

[akm]

You're probably not going to be able to keep the seahorses with that much flow but the pipefish might be alright. 29 gallons also might be a little small for most pipefishes though.

[Richard]

Jose's (seamonkey2) tank is awesome and he can give you some great info.

Here's what I can tell you....
You'll have to stick with smaller seahorse/pipefish species and you'll want to stick with tank reared ones. For example, I carry H. kellogi mostly which get big (11-12") so they would not be the best choice for a 29 gallon. H. reidi might be a good choice since they don't get as big and captive reared ones are readily available so they'll eat frozen mysis.

Mixing corals and seahorses is tricky. You have to stick with things that the seahorses won't hurt by holding onto them and corals that wont hurt the seahorses. The bubble coral probably has to go and the rock anemone MUST go if you want to put seahorse in there.

You also need to try to keep the tank cooler than you normally would. 74 -75 degrees is what most people shoot for. Also there is the current issue. Those sps won't like low flow and the SH's won't like high flow.

I think you'd be better off just setting up a seperate seahorse/pipefish tank and stocking according to their needs.

[GaryP]

Great info Richard.

What do you think about keeping pipefish in a reef tank?

[Richard]

Depends on the species I guess. Many species naturally occur on coral reefs while others are probably not suited to a reef.

I'm in the process of learning this stuff now. I'm about to setup a 92 corner tank in my wife's office that will be a seahorse/pipefish reef. I haven't decided on what types of corals but they will be chosen to fit in with the seahorses. Also going to do some seagrasses and macro algaes. I be careful about what kind of macro's though, you know I'm not a big fan of macros hehe.

Jose had a real nice pair of pipefish in his reef setup. I don't remember what species but they looked happy and his tangs, angels, clowns, etc. didn't bother them.

I have got to get my butt in gear on this tank though. It's my wife's christmas present and it's still just setting in the kitchen untouched. She has been patient but I KNOW that won't last forever.

[snoop]

I think I am going to but a nice direct flow over the SPS so that the horsies wont prefer it to the other hitching posts I will have(stick kelp and lot of cheato and red grape calp in one of the corners). Thanks for thee quick response!

[snoop]

Ive looked into seagrass and it must have a very mature(more mature than a clam needs) tank for it to live.
Does anybody have a link to seamonkey2's Tank?

[jap1]

I'd like to do a seahorse tank in the future as well. It will definately be a seperate tank with probably no corals. I'm thinking about just doing plants. I think that would look pretty nice and I would guess it'd keep the seahorses happy. Anyone know their favorite plants?

[Shark_Bait]

This is the best list I've seen around for suitable Seahorse tankmates
http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates.shtml

[snoop]

thanks

[hobogato]

heres a link to jose's thread with his tank pics linked.

http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=17261

[scuba_steveo]

My pipefish has been happy in my reef for about 6 months (or more) now

http://scubasteveo.smugmug.com/photos/54557782-M.jpg

[jc]

Is that a Dragonface pipefish? What do you feed it?

[scuba_steveo]

Yes it is and I have never seen it eat. I think it hunts pods....

[GaryP]

I'd like to do a seahorse tank in the future as well. It will definately be a seperate tank with probably no corals. I'm thinking about just doing plants. I think that would look pretty nice and I would guess it'd keep the seahorses happy. Anyone know their favorite plants?
I saw a great seahorse tank on a tank tour a long time ago in Austin. She had a herd of them in a tank with nothing but feather caulerpa. The caulerpa supported a really good pod population that the sea horses fed off of.

[snoop]

I plan on doing a couple less evasive algeas maby some red grap calp in the corner.