Help Blue stripe pipefish

[fishoholic]

Go to my last post (@ 6:41am) I need bubble info/help

Just wondering what everyones thoughts are. I bought a blue stripe pipefish (Doryrhamphus excisus excisus) today. He is about an inch and a half long and is now living in our 15g long frag tank. I have a mature sand bottom and few pieces of LR and I put some caulerpa in the tank for him. I have a korallia one running for flow and the lights are 250watt MH. I am aware that most won't eat frozen so no worries, as I do have a fuge in our sump from our 230g system that is full of pods, so hopefully that will help with feedings. I have read a lot of info on pipefish but I'm wondering about anyones personal experiences with them. Thanks Laurie

[Snappy]

I have had mine for 2.5 years and they are great. Easiest to care for pipefish out there IMO.

[ponokareefer]

I just picked one up as well. My 9 gallon nano was just crawling with pods, and now has been thinned out a little bit after 10 days. Does your's eat anything other than pods? I also have a large refugium, but it would be nice if it would eat something else.

[fishoholic]

I have had mine for 2.5 years and they are great. Easiest to care for pipefish out there IMO.

Great to know, I've only had mine for a day and I haven't seen him eat yet, what does yours eat?

[fishoholic]

I noticed what appears to be a small bubble under my pipefish's head. I'm thinking this is bad. I noticed a lot of bubbles in the frag tank (caused by a ciyano outbreak) so I moved the pipefish into our refugeium, hopefully he'll be better off in there. Is there anything else I should be doing for him, will I need to pop the bubble or would doing something like that make it worse? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[naesco]

They require the same conditions which is a species tank with only very peaceful fish as company.
They should not be attempted by hobbists unless they have these conditions.

Here is is the comment from wetwebmedia.com

Pipefish are even more difficult that wild seahorse to keep. As for Pipefishes, they're survivability is, if anything, even more dismal than wild-collected seahorses. They should only be attempted by folks in the know and of dead earnest. Reef-type set-ups with few or no competing fish tankmates are best for providing conditions conducive to their care. Various banded pipefishes, in the genera Dunckerocampus and Doryrhamphus are available from time to time mostly out of the Indo-Pacific. The creeping Pipefishes of the genus Corythoichthys are probably the most popular, best-lived forms, some known to have lived for months in well-established reef tanks. Some of the temperate species of Syngnathus, likewise have been kept and bred in aquarium confinement, as "species-tanks" by themselves.

[fishoholic]

I checked on him in our fuge (which has a sand bed, LR, cheato and caulerpa, barely any bubbles, and low flow in it) and he's swimming around in and out of the cheato and seems really happy. I looked closely at the cheato and there are lots of pods for him to eat, so hopefully he'll be ok. He wouldn't pose properly for me so I don't know if the bubble is still there or not.

[tang daddy]

I have a purple/yellow pipefish that has kept himself alive in my reef for 8+months. I thought he was a gonner cause I never saw him but he mostly hides in the back because the flow is too strong for him. 2 tunze 6100 anyhow he eats pods and mysis, I tried feeding him the larger variety of mysis which he ate aswell. He's about 6in long really cool fish, at night when the lights go out the tunze's are turned down and I'll find him out front. I really love the character of the fish, humble I kinda wish I could put him in the sump so he can get fed more.... Currently when the tank gets fed food doesn't get to the back that often cause all pumps and powerheads are off also the other fish are pretty fast at getting the foood but I have seen him eat and what I do now is hold a piece of mysis on a tong and he swims out from the cavern and does a head nod as he whips the food into his mouth!

[Snappy]

Those little guys are bullet proof. Mine lives in my softy tank with: marine beta, yellow clown goby, purple firefish, large clown fish, flame angel, 2x orchid dottybacks,

[sharuq1]

I wanted to get one of those but last time I went to the store I saw them in they were gone. They are certainly very cute and pretty :mrgreen: hope yours will do well.

[Bayside Corals]

I have two of them in my 230 gallon SPS mixed reef tank. They don't like the light too much as they stay under the ledges of the rock but will come out in the open as soon as the halides shut off. I have seen them eat frozen cyclop-eeze. but thats about it. I assume they are feeding off of pods mostly. Just recently I noticed that the male was carrying eggs under his belly which is very cool! Wonder how hard it would be to raise the babies, probaly not an easy task.

Colby

[fishoholic]

I wanted to get one of those but last time I went to the store I saw them in they were gone. They are certainly very cute and pretty :mrgreen: hope yours will do well.

I've had him for about a week now and he's doing great :biggrin: there is no longer a bubble under his head, and he's fatter then when I first got him :mrgreen: He loves his cheato home in our `fuge, there's lots of pods and live baby mysis for him to eat in there, so far it seems to be the perfect place for him.

[sharuq1]

Wonderful to hear!:biggrin:

[oceanrider]

Great to know, I've only had mine for a day and I haven't seen him eat yet, what does yours eat?


I had two Doryhamphus ( blue striped ) pipefishes in my 50 gallon mature reef tank.

I fed them initially with some juvenile (larger than baby) brine shrimp, which they took. But one of the pipefishes was really picking on the other smaller one, so much that later on it died and disappeared.

The remaining one lived well in the tank. HE would scrounge around, looking for small crustaceans, even though I did NOT have that much newer live rock and no noticeable copepod population. The reef tank had numerous mushrooms , soft corals, clam, etc....but he was the only fish...and he loved it.
I did not feed him with any brineshrimp or any new copepod source for over 8 months...and he was fine. You can see him scrounge around the back of the tank, looking for super small plankton/crustaceans...and then snapping at it.....

talk about easy to keep....just dump some copepods into a reef tank , and you are set.

[BlueAbyss]

Been doing some research on these guys as I will likely get a pair for my 20 gallon display, when I get it going finally. It seems that the hanging out under ledges and in quieter areas is a natural behaviour for these guys, so I plan to build some ledges into my tankscape for them, and there will be some seagrass for them to hang out in too.

They sure are cool fish, and beautiful too.

[oceanrider]

Been doing some research on these guys as I will likely get a pair for my 20 gallon display, when I get it going finally. It seems that the hanging out under ledges and in quieter areas is a natural behaviour for these guys, so I plan to build some ledges into my tankscape for them, and there will be some seagrass for them to hang out in too.

They sure are cool fish, and beautiful too.


Great....

Just do not get two males , like I did. They are territorial and the stronger one will not tolerate a competitor.

Yes, they like ledges. My blue stripe pipefish came out to eat at all hours....and liked having the run of the tank.

advise anyone interested in keeping these, to have some rocks that have copepods or minishrimp on them, so they can restock the food source.

an occasional uncured live rock may be good also.


Once, I was scuba diving, and collected a small live rock, one small enough to close one's hand over it. I kept it in some seawater...but no airpump..Big mistake...cause in a few hours, all the live shrimp inside it were starved of oxygen and came out and died.....there were literally hundreds and hundreds of live crustaceans on any uncured live rock..

but of course, there can also be some parasites...or flame worms..

good luck...

[BlueAbyss]

Great....

Just do not get two males , like I did. They are territorial and the stronger one will not tolerate a competitor.

Yes I considered this, and can see no other way to get around it than to buy a pair and hope for the best... I will be ordering them online, so beyond making a note that I would like a somewhat obvious pair, it will be somewhat out of my hands. Unfortunately.

advise anyone interested in keeping these, to have some rocks that have copepods or minishrimp on them, so they can restock the food source.

an occasional uncured live rock may be good also...

Hmm am I to understand that these guys don't generally accept prepared foods?

When I set up the tank it will be with mud, sand, uncured rock, some limestone for ledges and whatnot, and some sort of macroalgae (likely calcareous). I will do heavy water changes, skim heavily, and cycle the tank with the rock... hopefully, once this process is over, I'm left with some 'pods that will reproduce to feed my pipefish. And the tiny goby that will live with them. And the bumblebee shrimps :lol:

[fishoholic]

Yes I considered this, and can see no other way to get around it than to buy a pair and hope for the best... I will be ordering them online, so beyond making a note that I would like a somewhat obvious pair, it will be somewhat out of my hands. Unfortunately.



Hmm am I to understand that these guys don't generally accept prepared foods?

When I set up the tank it will be with mud, sand, uncured rock, some limestone for ledges and whatnot, and some sort of macroalgae (likely calcareous). I will do heavy water changes, skim heavily, and cycle the tank with the rock... hopefully, once this process is over, I'm left with some 'pods that will reproduce to feed my pipefish. And the tiny goby that will live with them. And the bumblebee shrimps :lol:

Your tank will need to be up and running for at least 6 months and will need to be heavily stocked with pods, as pods are the only thing they eat. I kept mine in my refugium area in my 110g sump (with live rock & cheato) that was connected to my 230g tank. He did very well in that set up (he was nice and fat and very healthy) and I had him for about 8 months when he deiced to swim out of the refugium area into the main part of the sump and ended up getting chopped up by the mag. pump :sad:

This is kind of an old thread, it may be better to start a new thread specifically about wanting to keep pipefish. You will probably get more answers to your questions and some helpful ideas with set up etc. in a new thread. If you want to keep the info you've shared in this thread you can ask a mod to move over part of this thread into a new one. Good luck with your set up and remember patience is the key in this hobby.

[oceanrider]

Yes I considered this, and can see no other way to get around it than to buy a pair and hope for the best... I will be ordering them online, so beyond making a note that I would like a somewhat obvious pair, it will be somewhat out of my hands. Unfortunately.


true. It is harder to distinguish the male from female....since the male pouch is not all that visible.


Hmm am I to understand that these guys don't generally accept prepared foods?

When I set up the tank it will be with mud, sand, uncured rock, some limestone for ledges and whatnot, and some sort of macroalgae (likely calcareous). I will do heavy water changes, skim heavily, and cycle the tank with the rock... hopefully, once this process is over, I'm left with some 'pods that will reproduce to feed my pipefish. And the tiny goby that will live with them. And the bumblebee shrimps :lol:


Well, you can turn off the pumps and filters, and then dump in your own newly hatched brine shrimp once in a while. I find this process tedious in the long run.

Getting new live rock with micro fauna like copepods, minishrimps, etc on it is the best way to stock the tank . I would seriously reconsider adding the goby,,,since it will eat up the pods on the substrate level, and thus not allowing a mature breeeding population for the pipefish to survive.



good luck.

:biggrin:

[BlueAbyss]

Thanks for the info all, much appreciated.

The tank will be up and running for at least 6 months before adding fishes... actually, the tank will be up and running for 6 months before I even plant the seagrass! After reading up a bit, seagrass seems to do best in tanks that have been running for a while to build up some sediment and nutrients in the substrate. The mud will help, but since Halophila and Halodule spp. are difficult to find (I have been unable to find a source in Canada on the internet) I would like to give them the best chance possible.

After the grasses are planted, I'll let them get growing before I add any fish... so it will likely be a year before I even get the pipefish. The Bumblebee shrimp will go in when the grasses are planted, the pipefish when the grasses have started to grow, and the goby later if the tank can support it. The real reason I wanted a small goby was to have a different colored fish in there, but in the end the tank is for the pipefish and shrimp, and the goby was an afterthought.

I kinda figured there was a way to tell male from female, I'm just hoping that I end up getting lucky and they don't send me 2 males :lol:

[BlueAbyss]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I will also be dosing my tank with homegrown phytoplankton that I will culture... This will hopefully feed the zooplankton which will hopefully feed the 'pods, which will end up as healthy snacks for my pipefish. If anyone that's kept these guys is interested, here's my build thread for your consideration... http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45990, and I may yet start a thread about the care and behaviour of these interesting tiny beasts.