Are clownfish and Cardinalfish compatible?

If I were you I would just get a clown or something until you and your tank are ready for mandarins, pipefish and sea horses. Then you can remove the clown and enjoy your exotic fishes. But until you have the pods and expertise I would just stick with one fish.

 

pipefish are like no other fish, this is why im thinking thats its best for you to just get a pipefish after the tank is cycled, the only reason many aquarists refer to them as expert only is because alot of them require live food unless they are weaned onto frozen, and still feeding them is a pain in the butt. but if your willing to do all that i dont see why you couldnt just start off with a pipefish.

 

I don't know much about pipefish and sea horses but I know that starting of with a mandarin is a bad idea. Ideally they need 100lbs of rock and an established system with a fuge full of pods.

 

Pipefish still depend on Copepods for a food source. You are trying to tell somebody to put a fish in a new aquarium that obviously doesn't have an established pod community in it. I don't know about you, but for me to buy pods, it cost me about $20 a bottle. That would insanely expensive to keep buying pods all the time to feed this fish. Unless he can get one that has already been weaned onto frozen foods. I don't think it is smart to start with this fish, and the OP seems to already know this.

 

no pipefish are like seahorses they require rotifers or brine shrimp to live, and no tank establishes a brine shrimp community in it. IMO he wouldnt be any better starting off later than he would be sooner.

 

I was planning on making 2 or 3 of those pod condos and placing the around the tank. I would like to keep the pipefishes/seahorses first, but I thought everything should just run for a few months with a heavier bio load than seahorses can make- that way it will be easy to go to a smaller bioload.

 

i would run just an empty tank, no need to fill it with fish that you are just going to take out eventually. start with seahorses and pipefish then do mandarins, mandarins require a pod population. whereas seahorses and pipefish rely on you feeding them brine shrimp or rotifers.

 

They are called difficult for a reason.

"When first introduced into the aquarium, live saltwater feeder shrimp should be used to entice this fish to eat. The diet should consist of small live invertebrates such as vitamin-enriched brine shrimp, baby guppies, grass shrimp, mosquito larva, and daphnia. It needs to be fed at least three times per day."

You can do what you want but I see this as a bad idea.
When first introduced into the aqua...ct/prod_display.cfm?c=15 267 1690&pcatid=1690

 

like i said! they are called difficult because they eat live food. many hobbyists prefer not to feed live brine shrimp this is why they are so called expert only. even though there is not much difficult about creating live brine shrimp cultures.

no offense really, but you are not giving very good reasoning as to why you belive it is a bad idea other than they eat live foods.

 

Well if he has the will power to breed brine shrimp guppies or mosquito larvae and feed 3+ times a day then go for it.