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]

Originally Posted by Snappy

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 hope yours will do well.