Need help with reccomendations about a set-up i want to buy

HI all,

I recently went to a LFS near me yesterday and saw that they had an awesome little seahorse set-up for $300 AUD. Now this is super cheap for this type of set-up in Australia. My main concern is that this tank could not have been more than 30 litres of water and was not higher than 20cm. I asked the person who worked there whether the pair of seahorses (not sure what kind but I do know that they are not wild and have been tank raised for years) would need a larger tank and they said that they would be fine to live a full life in the tank. I just do not know if I believe this. Do you think this will work?

Also, I have a spare 90 litre tank sitting around that I wouldn't mind getting two picasso clownfish for with maybe a mandarin goby or dragonette?. But I don't really know what I would need to run the 90L. I definitely do not want a sump and would prefer not to have a protein skimmer. Do you think this tank is too big to not have a protein skimmer? If not, what equipment will I need for this 90 litre?

I am more leaning towards the seahorses but not if they will be unhappy in that size of tank.

 

I think it may depend on the type of seahorse? Some of these guys are super little. I've never kept them myself, but from the brief reading I've done, 30L (8ish gallons) is perfect for dwarf seahorses, who wouldn't be able to find food in a bigger tank...

Basically you need more info and to do a lot of reading, but it's really an amazing deal.

For the other tank, I don't think you would need a skimmer. Even some people with large tanks go skimmerless. It's all about maintenance. Mandarins are probably as tricky as seahorses though.

 

Yes I sort of figured that these seahorses must be dwarf because they were pretty small and so were some of the adults. I'm starting to lean toward the mandarin tank a bit more because their mandarins take frozen food as they are tank bred.

 

That's pretty small even for dwarfs. And the biggest issue - especially so for seahorses - would be maintaining stability. BTW, for those of us keeping seahorses the dwarfs are the single most difficult type to keep successfully. This is true even for expert keepers. Although the definition of "sucessfully" is open to interpretation!

The 90L would be too small for the Mandarin.

 

TracyH67 I will get you a photo of it because I know that you know your stuff when it comes to seahorses. I mean they were just white seahorses if that helps in any way but I would like you to have a look at the actual set-up for me if that is ok