Help Blue stripe pipefish

[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]

Originally Posted by 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 hope yours will do well.

I've had him for about a week now and he's doing great there is no longer a bubble under his head, and he's fatter then when I first got him 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!

[oceanrider]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by oceanrider

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.

Originally Posted by oceanrider

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

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

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

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

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]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

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

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.

[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