Keeping pipefish, what is your take on this?

[ferret]

To my experience pipefish is most suitable keeping in the macro algae with live rocks system for producing tons of pods and different types of live food. I had the blue strip pipefish in my planted tank before ( the male up to 3 years while the female up to nearly 4 years ). The dragon face pipefish usually survive from 1 to 2 years. I noticed the pipefish will consume the frozen mysis after 2 to 4 months once they get along with the environment of the system, of course that's not guaranteed and depend on which type of pipefish that is.

[kien]

Here's my expereience with pipefish.. keep in mind I am not an expert on them! This is just kinda what I've observed with mine over the years.

I have tried 2 different kinds of, the banded and the dragonface pipefish. The banded pipefish had a hard time swimming in my Mixed Reef because the flow was just too high for him in my opinion. They seem to be more open water swimmers like fish except they seem to prefer calmer spots. The one I had swam around a bit but then would retreat to the calmest part of the tank that he could find. Anyway, he didn't last beyond a month, maybe two. Never ate anything but pods.

I have a dragonface pipefish that I've had for a couple of years and two more that I added after that I've had for about a year now. The dragonface pipefish is quite different in that it doesn't really swim around at all. It mostly slinks around through the rocks and corals hunting for food. Because of this he is fine in a high flow reef tank. I never see him/her swim. Even after two years my pipefish never eats frozen, or at least I never noticed if he/she did. Strictly pods which I have an abundance of. There was a period of a few months this year where I didn't have any coral in my tank at all and all 3 of my pipefish did fine hunting pods and such. Another point to make is that they are quite social. When I added an additional 2 pipefish the 3 of them immediately found each other and like to hang out together. I have not noticed any aggression from the 3 of them at all. They always sleep together. I have never seen any of my fish bother the pipefish.





Hope that helps!

[kien]

Oh, and my tank was about a year old when I added my first dragonface pipefish.

[mandyplo]

Thanks Kien! This has definitely given me some insight. It looks like I'm going to hold off on the banded / blue stripe for now and look more into the dragonface... but perhaps also wait until I have some coral for some of those guys aswell. Any idea where I can get some of these guys if I live in Ontario?

[kien]

Originally Posted by mandyplo

Thanks Kien! This has definitely given me some insight. It looks like I'm going to hold off on the banded / blue stripe for now and look more into the dragonface... but perhaps also wait until I have some coral for some of those guys aswell. Any idea where I can get some of these guys if I live in Ontario?

In Calgary they seem to show up at pretty much all of our local stores. In fact, Big Al's had some dragonface a couple of weeks ago and even some green Double-ended pipefish (Syngnathoides biaculeatus). I would personally never put any other kind of pipefish other than the dragonface pipefish in a mixed reef unless you have super low flow. Those other pipefish are much closer in requirements to seahorses and should probably go into a species dedicated tank.

[tim the toolman]

I have 2 banded pipes in my 180 gal mixed reef and have had them in there for over 6 months. They eat only live food however so when I first got them I raised brine shrimp to get them started then just let them go pods only. They tend to stay in the lower flow areas while my power heads are on during the day, but during the night cycle when my power heads are off and it's just my return pump moving water they are all over the tank hunting and swimming.
I should state that I have about a 30 gallon fuge loaded with pods and my tank is about 18 months old now so about a year when I introduced them.

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by tim the toolman

I have 2 banded pipes in my 180 gal mixed reef and have had them in there for over 6 months. They eat only live food however so when I first got them I raised brine shrimp to get them started then just let them go pods only. They tend to stay in the lower flow areas while my power heads are on during the day, but during the night cycle when my power heads are off and it's just my return pump moving water they are all over the tank hunting and swimming.
I should state that I have about a 30 gallon fuge loaded with pods and my tank is about 18 months old now so about a year when I introduced them.

Thanks Tim - I literally just set up my sump and got it running 2 days ago (my first attempt at a sump ever). I have a refuge compartment but I haven't put anything in there yet. I also run my power heads day and night so its looking like the banded and blue stripes are out of the question for me... I'm going to look into raising brine shrimp and care for dragonface pipefish, but first I'll get my reef a little more mature and get my refuge going aswell. How does one "raise pods?" I'm going to read up on this also.

Thanks for all the advice guys - it's given me tons of insight! Really glad I didn't hop to buying a pipefish before consulting with canreef. I love this forum site

[sphelps]

[kien]

Love that pic! one of my fav of all time.

[kien]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I wonder if your pipe ever thought about going deeper into that clam.