seahorses and corals

[Leah]

+1

I have heard not to put them with clams but having said that I have seen them kept with some rather large ones.

[sphelps]

I keep mine with pretty much everything except anemones and euphyllia type corals. I've heard others warn about clams but to be honest I have a hard time seeing the danger, it's very unlikely a seahorse tail will cause the clam to slam shut. They might twitch a little but nothing major.

[rayjay]

The basic recommendation is not to keep them with any corals that have a sting.
Seahorses have varying degrees of susceptibility to the stings and you don't know until it happens, if your horse is going to be negatively affected until it's too late.
Odds of long term success when keeping seahorses decrease in reef temperatures because of their extreme affinity for bacterial infections like vibriosis which is present in all our tanks.
At temperatures above 74° the bacteria multiply exponentially with each rising degree, increasing the odds that the horse will succumb to the bacteria.
While it can be, and is done, there are many more seahorses that perish for each one that succeeds.
As for keeping with clams, it's the smaller clams that respond faster that are the greatest risk to the seahorses.
Most larger clams don't shut up completely.