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i was wondering if anybody has seahorse's and if they r compatible with clownfish

Seahorses need to be kept under very, very special conditions, like sharks
Those conditions, I don't really know...

What size tank?

Seahorses are not compatiable with any fish really, defentinally not Clownfish. They can't compete for food.

It`s funny you say they aint compatable because they must be compatable because:
1) They have got Seahorses with fish in London Aquarium
2) How do they survive in the wild then if in the wild fish come and go from around them?

What you mean is they are very hard to keep with other fish, not they are incompatable.

^bad points for an argument^

Perky...may i ask how big is the ocean compared to the tanks? IMO, sea horses are not capable with fish. They are also as fragile as sharks as they dont do well with medications. Also, compare to the speed of feeding of fish and seahorses. Many aquariums have sea horses with fish but they dont last long.

If anybody is near Indianapolis,Indiana. There is a great Seahorse exibit at the childrens museum.Around 9 tanks in all.The exibit is not permanent and I am not sure how long it is open. About the best way to see them if you do not want to dedicate a tank to them....IMO

Pipe fish do quite well with seahorses. A mandarin/seahorse tank is also very do-able.

At least somebody kind of agrees there are other fish that are compatable with Seahorses

Seahorses are considered a 'speciality' in the marine trade mainly due to their requirements in aquaria. As previously stated, the main reason (but there are many others too) that they are 'difficult' to keep with other fish is because of the competetion for food.
1) They require quite still water movement - most other marines require rapid water movement.
2) They are very 'lazy' when feeding and most other fish will eat their food before they can reach it = starvation.
3) Their digestive system is poor and most of their food gets passed straight through = feeding 24hours and lots of waste.
4) They are very timid and most other fish will harass them.

Again, as stated, they can be kept with pipefishes and even cowfish but generally they are best kept in a species aquarium.

I just recently read a great article in Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine on Seahorses. The guy who wrote it said seahorses are definetly not reccomended for beginners or intermediate fish keepers, they require expert care only. In captivity, if they are wild caught seahorses, most of the food they are fed will result in their death as they do NOT get the required nutrients from it - such foods as brine shrimp and marine chows for marine fish just wont do. Most wild caught seahorses will starve because they dont have live food. (Again live brine shrimp wont do). The only chance pretty much of having a seahorse survive in your care is if it is captive bred, and if you can devote a tank only to them and their special needs.
Just because an "aquarium" has seahorses doesnt mean that You are capable of caring for them as the dedicated experts who work at such aquariums are. You are not capable of giving to them what a huge organization as the london aquarium can, the average aquariast does not have the resources needed. And my guess is 90% of the seahorses in the large aquariums die and are replaced within a couple weeks. Again, an aquarium has the resources to just keep buying more seahorses.
If you do decide to dedicate a tank to the seahorse, I reccomend you read as much as you can on them, find out if the stores you shop at have the required food for seahorses, and make sure they are captive bred. I myself think I would cry if I bought such a beautiful little creature and it was my own ignorance that killed it.


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Well, I found out that seahorses are not availble for selling in aquariums due to the fact the populations of seahorses have declined and the fisheries in NSW have announced that sea horses are not allowed for sale in aquariums.

C.I.T.I.E.S. has, or is soon going to put a ban on harvesting of wild seahorses.......be prepared to pay the higher price for captive breed seahorses. The higher price is well worth it though.

Of course there are exceptions of fish they can be kept with, but I'm guessing 7puke14 is either a beginner, or has never kept SW fish at all. Seahorses would be hard enough to keep on their own, but to suggest a Pipefish or Mandarin on top of that is even more rediculous. IMO, the conditions they require are far too specialized to really keep with anything else.

The Shedd aquarium also has a large searhorse display, with a number of tanks, they don't keep fish in any of them either. It's makes keeping seahorses that much more difficult.

OK. Now, compatible doesn't mean feasible. Mandarins are slow, deliberate feeders, as are seahorses. BUT, they eat copods...which reside in live rock. They need huge amounts of them in order to survive. A good mandarin tank should be, IMO, at least 120 gallons, with 300 pounds of live rock, and a 55 gallon refugium stuffed FULL of live rock.

Now....Seahorses, on the other hand, require a small tank. This is so they don't have to expend a large amount of energy swimming. They also need to be able to get to their food quickly. They cannot have any current to speak of, which basically cuts the chance of copious amounts of live rock. There would be too many dead spots. So, given these two tank setups, looks to me like they aren't compatible AT ALL.

As for pipefish, they are IMO, pretty similar to a seahorse, and I have seen tanks where they are put together. However, just because it is done, does not mean that it is a good idea. Personally I know of no place to purchase tank-raised specimens, so IMO, they should not be in YOUR tank, either.

As to the arguments presented regarding the public aquarium...this is a laughable example, since you cannot possibly mimic the size of this, nor does the average layperson see behind the scenes.

The ocean argument is even more ridiculous. The ocean is an ECOSYSTEM. It is independant, it is self-sustaining. It does not require Joe Shmoe to go to his gargantuan freezer, grab some frozen mysis, thaw it, and spot feed each denizen of his personal fishtank. The mysis are already there, and the seahorses just eat them. Seahorses HAVE no stomach, they can starve to death very rapidly, so they live in a food rich area of the ocean. If you are going to argue about the feasability of something, at least do it intelligently and with some viable and well researched information.

[span class="edited"][Edited by honeybeze 2004-07-12 16:30][/span]

I agree that from what I've read on seahorses, they're probably not what you want to go with, especially the acclimation process! If you don't do it right, you're asking for a dead seahorse...

I have a problem however, in that I saw about a dozen seahorses at a chainstore whose name ends with the word land. They were all sitting in the back, looking quite pathetic. Why would this store sell them and what can I do to make them stop?