Stocking a 65 gallon tank

[Redbellyjx]

hey guys (and gals)

Im trying to come up with a stock list for my 65 gallon tank.

I have 2 tank bred horses so far. not sure of the specie.

what other fish can i keep in the tank?

i was thinking a maybe another pair of horses watchman goby, a couple dart fish, and a mandarin.

2 questions
1) is there anything on my list that shouldn't be kept with sea horses? in general what can't be kept with horses?

2) is my tank going to be over stocked?

[JennyL]

The first thing that concerns me is the fact you don't know what species you already have.

Differant species have differant keeping requirements and you need to know in order to care for them properly.

[Redbellyjx]

i bought it from dr foster and smith... they didnt have a speicies name

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=2179

[hydroid]

If you decide to add more horses, please get the same kind from the same place. The risk of disease is great when mixing species of syngnathids. Even the same species from different origins often causes problems.

I don't keep other fish with my horses, so I don't have much experience there. I've always figured the horses would upstage any other tankmate.

Mandarins are gentle enough but rely on a persistent pod population. The seahorses will wipe out that pod population in very short order, leaving the mandarin to starve over time.

A 65G is a very good size for a sh tank. From what you posted, your stocking density seems reasonable.

HTH

[pledosophy]

IME your stocking level sounds fine. I have kept all that in a 65g tank, and much more.

Manderins are cool with seahorses IME. IME seahorses don't pay much attention to copepods, they're to small, so there is no food competition. JME

To keep a manderin you do need a good constant supply of pods. Refugiums are great for this IMO.

I would stay awya from the larger watchman's the the pink spotted as they seem to be more aggresive when something comes into there territory. In a 65g, everything will be the watchman's territory. I had great luck with a yellow watchman and would do it again.

JMO

[Redbellyjx]

Thanks for the heads up guys! i have a fuge on the tank. i wouldnt add a mandarin for a few months i think.

[LisaD]

you may want to wait longer yet to add a mandarin, the tank needs to have a really established pod population and seahorses may compete some with a mandarin (though they usually like larger food items). it helps a lot if the mandarin will also eat frozen - you can't count on that, but IME target mandarins are easier to get to eat frozen than psychedelic mandarins.

I'm not very good at ID, but if you post a picture of the seahorses you got, someone here might be able to help you with ID. I suspect you probably have reidi or kuda.

I'd get the seahorses well established, at least a couple months, before you add other fish. I have kept the following with seahorses:

-small gobies (neon, yasha, watchman)
-orchid dottyback
-Hawaiian leaf fish - usually must have live food
-smaller more peaceful blennies (bicolor, black sailfin)
-mandarins - established tanks with lots of pods only
-six line wrasse
-blue assessor

that's what I recall off the top of my head that I have personally kept with seahorses.

for inverts, consider :
peppermint shrimp, scarlet reef hermits, assorted snails, feather dusters

if you get more seahorses, I'd recommend you get more of the same kind from the same source and QT at least a few weeks before adding. seahorses are most likely to get fatal diseases from other seahorses. in some cases, it appears different seahorse species can be symptomless carriers for disease pathogens that can kill other seahorses. this is largely anecdotal but has been to some extent confirmed with necropsy data (by Labdoc on seahorse.org)