Tankmates

[Durbelethwen]

I am thinking about making a 30 gallon aquarium that I have into a seahorse tank (right now it has 18-20 baby goldfish in it.) I am planning on having a pair of tank bred H. erectus. I have a couple of suitability tankmate questions:
1. Because seahorses are prone to infection I was thinking of putting in one or two neon gobies, for their cleaning abilities. Live Aquaria sells tank bred neon gobies. They are a one on seahorse.org's suitability scale. Would their cleaning abilities help keep the seahorses healthier?
2. Speaking of seahorse.org's suitability scale: I was wondering why some fish which are usually compatible with other fish are unsuited for seahorses. For instance last night I was surfing online marine stores when I fell in love with this beauty: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+16+452&pcatid=452
Imagine my disappointment when, though that species is not specifically mentioned on the site, all of its relatives are fours. I do know that dwarf angel fish are aggressive, but I thought they were only aggressive to other angels and to fish that are similar :reading: (neither of which a seahorse is).
Thank you for your thoughts.

[andythorntonjr]

From what I understand in regards to general seahorse tankmate suitability, there are two (major) things that contribute to something being unsuitable: feeding competition & aggression. Since sea horses tend to be on the shy side, something with similar eating habits can become a competitor in regards to feeding. End result, the other fish/whatever crowds them out, they go hungry, get sick and/or die. Then there is general aggressiveness or just behavior incompatibility.


You have some fish or inverts that are very outgoing. Roam around, get up close & personal, etc. While some fish might tolerate it, even some sea horses, on average, they tend to dislike such 'outgoing' tankmates, to say nothing of the aggressive ones.

While the suitability chart/scale you're referencing is handy, don't go solely by that either. Your best bet for judging suitable tankmates is to do a search on here and other sites, just look what other people have tried. If there are specific species you'd like to mix, look those up in the seahorse forum to see what all people have said about them.


I know for my own tank, the only clean-up crew I'm going with are snails and scarlet hermits. I know hermits tend to be a 'mixed' review by people, but so far I've had no problems and they're definitely helping on cleaning things too. Not as exciting perhaps as some of the larger fish, but then again, the sea horses are supposed to be the primary draw of their own tank. :)

[MarySantos]

The seahorses wouldn't be able to compete for food, and they might get hurt by that guy, or get extremely stressed out to the point of death. I know gobies are good, but the thing with the infection has to do with the bacteria that's in the tank. And that's why seahorses often require chillers and low temperatures. Because the higher the temp, the more bacteria there is, and the more prone to infection your seahorses are. I would do a little more research and/or really think about what you want your tank to be. Good luck! I'm still learning, and planning on getting my erectus pair soon. :)