Anyone keeping pipe fish in their tanks? I have recently seen a pair of golden orange banded pipe fish (someone can fill in the Sc. name for me) in LFS' Show tank. Beautifle and gracious looking fish for the reef tank. How many keeps them? Judging by their mouth shape and size, I would imagin they survive on tank's pod population. Is that right?
Pipe fish in Reef tank?
- Thread starter danmhippo
- Start date
Pipefishes are very close relatives of seahorses and they are treated almost exactly the same as far as care. They need to be in a species specific tank or at least with other fish that will not beat them out of food. They eat the same things seahorses do--mysis shrimp and other small crustaceans, etc.
I had a funky little Gulf Pipefish (Sygnathus scovelli)that we collected in FL, until I had a bacterial infection outbreak in my seahorse tank
First find out if they are eating prepared food, or only live...I'd bet it's only live, but my little pipe trained onto PE Mysis within about 3 weeks.
Secondly, they are very timid and docile creatures. Make sure you don't have any aggressive tankmates, and make sure that you can ensure that they get their share of food, they aren't very fast and can easily be outcompeted for food.
IMO I'd stick to a species tank for these...such as a dedicated pipe tank, and/or seahorse tank.
JMHO
Jenn
First find out if they are eating prepared food, or only live...I'd bet it's only live, but my little pipe trained onto PE Mysis within about 3 weeks.
Secondly, they are very timid and docile creatures. Make sure you don't have any aggressive tankmates, and make sure that you can ensure that they get their share of food, they aren't very fast and can easily be outcompeted for food.
IMO I'd stick to a species tank for these...such as a dedicated pipe tank, and/or seahorse tank.
JMHO
Jenn
the difference between pipe fish and seahorses is that pipefish are built to handle stronger currents such as a reef tank. this doesn't mean it could live in high currents like in a sps tank though. at the waikiki aquarium they keep pipefish in their giant clam exhibit with tangs. don't keep them with fish that will compete for food.
Damnhippo,
I wouldn't get one after having watched one wither away in my tank (well meaning gift from my G/F: never walk by a tank in the LFS and say "Wow, that's cool" a week before your birthday...), and I had plenty of Pod's and Algae in there. The Species I had made it's diet out of SPS polyps, which at the time, I had none of. So I plopped him in my hospital tank, which was nothing more than an algae farm at the time. Took him a couple of weeks, and I tried everything I could think of to feed him: Live Brine, Live Blodworms, all manner of frozen foods, nothing. Finally had to flush him and have a conversation with the LFS owner, as my G/F had enough smarts to ask if the fish was Reef Safe before she bought it for me. Now I get Gift Certificates.
- Mac
I wouldn't get one after having watched one wither away in my tank (well meaning gift from my G/F: never walk by a tank in the LFS and say "Wow, that's cool" a week before your birthday...), and I had plenty of Pod's and Algae in there. The Species I had made it's diet out of SPS polyps, which at the time, I had none of. So I plopped him in my hospital tank, which was nothing more than an algae farm at the time. Took him a couple of weeks, and I tried everything I could think of to feed him: Live Brine, Live Blodworms, all manner of frozen foods, nothing. Finally had to flush him and have a conversation with the LFS owner, as my G/F had enough smarts to ask if the fish was Reef Safe before she bought it for me. Now I get Gift Certificates.
- Mac
Does that means its a "GO" for me?
My 150G w/70G sump is a pod crawling heaven. Although there is a dragnet (2"), there isn't much else competing for food with the pipe fish. I once fit a net under the overflow pipe, I caught at least 50 pods washing down the overflow pipe in less than an hour. Other fish I have are a purple tang, 4 hippo, 1 anthia, 2 tomato, 1 sailfin, 2 banggai, 2 pajama & 1 kole. Plus 200# of LR with 4"+DSB. 2 other mangrove/seagrass/DSB sump for more pod production.
Tank is all softies with sponges and gorgonians. 1 rock anemone and 6 clams. Current is moderate with 4 maxijet-1200.
My 150G w/70G sump is a pod crawling heaven. Although there is a dragnet (2"), there isn't much else competing for food with the pipe fish. I once fit a net under the overflow pipe, I caught at least 50 pods washing down the overflow pipe in less than an hour. Other fish I have are a purple tang, 4 hippo, 1 anthia, 2 tomato, 1 sailfin, 2 banggai, 2 pajama & 1 kole. Plus 200# of LR with 4"+DSB. 2 other mangrove/seagrass/DSB sump for more pod production.
Tank is all softies with sponges and gorgonians. 1 rock anemone and 6 clams. Current is moderate with 4 maxijet-1200.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chucker:
<STRONG>hipster- nah, he lives about 20 minutes from me, and we hang out fairly often.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Note to self:
Do not move 20 minutes to Chucker if memory is fading
<STRONG>hipster- nah, he lives about 20 minutes from me, and we hang out fairly often.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Note to self:
Do not move 20 minutes to Chucker if memory is fading
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mac:
<STRONG>Damnhippo,
I wouldn't get one after having watched one wither away in my tank (well meaning gift from my G/F: never walk by a tank in the LFS and say "Wow, that's cool" a week before your birthday...), and I had plenty of Pod's and Algae in there. The Species I had made it's diet out of SPS polyps, which at the time, I had none of. So I plopped him in my hospital tank, which was nothing more than an algae farm at the time. Took him a couple of weeks, and I tried everything I could think of to feed him: Live Brine, Live Blodworms, all manner of frozen foods, nothing. Finally had to flush him and have a conversation with the LFS owner, as my G/F had enough smarts to ask if the fish was Reef Safe before she bought it for me. Now I get Gift Certificates.
- Mac</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sounds like it was an orange spotted filefish (Oxymonocanthusn longirostris),
Never heard of a pipefish feeding on polyps...
<STRONG>Damnhippo,
I wouldn't get one after having watched one wither away in my tank (well meaning gift from my G/F: never walk by a tank in the LFS and say "Wow, that's cool" a week before your birthday...), and I had plenty of Pod's and Algae in there. The Species I had made it's diet out of SPS polyps, which at the time, I had none of. So I plopped him in my hospital tank, which was nothing more than an algae farm at the time. Took him a couple of weeks, and I tried everything I could think of to feed him: Live Brine, Live Blodworms, all manner of frozen foods, nothing. Finally had to flush him and have a conversation with the LFS owner, as my G/F had enough smarts to ask if the fish was Reef Safe before she bought it for me. Now I get Gift Certificates.
- Mac</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sounds like it was an orange spotted filefish (Oxymonocanthusn longirostris),
Never heard of a pipefish feeding on polyps...
Greg Hiller
Just a bum in Boston
- Location
- Wakefield, MA
FWIW, I have a Janus's pipefish (14 months), and an small banded pipefish (4 months) in a 54 gallon corner reef tank. Although it depends upon the species, IME, most of the pipefish are interested in critters a bit larger than copepods. They might be able to eat Gammarus amphipods if the Gammarus are small enough. The pipefish I have are particularly fond of small mysis shrimp which grow naturally in all my systems. Whenever I purchase a pipefish however, I first start it in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. Usually they will eat live brine shrimp to start. Sometimes you get lucky and they will take frozen mysis shrimp immediately, but usually it is a several week to several month process getting them to eat frozen food (definetly not for beginners!). It also helps a lot if you have some live large mysis shrimp to get them interested. Only after they are eating at least some frozen food do I move my pipefish into a reef system. That way I can supplement their food supply if they deplete the tanks natural population of mysis shrimp.
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