aggressive pipefish?

[susan92368]

So i picked up a banded pipefish today. He's about 4 inches and very small. Cute little bugger, but he has taken to chasing around my 2 very large cleaner shrimp. Could he kill them?:sad1: will he stop? is this normal behavior? should i remove them? think i got all the questions out for now! thanks in advance for advice!

 

[ChadTheSpike]

the banded pipefish I have had were very interested in larger shrimps (cleaners and pepperment IME), I always thought it was very entertaining to watch the little guys look at the shrimp like "can I fit that in my mouth?". My pipefish never actually attacked the shrimp, although I think it is certainly possible that the pipefish could[ kill a larger shrimp, I have not observed it. My pipefish also gave up on it with time.
Chad

 

[namxas]

agreed...the pipe is indeed checking the shrimp out for size. while i have never seen it happen with pipes, i have indeed seen SH (reidi in this case) snick larger shrimp into bite-size pieces.

keep the pipe well-fed, and it should pass.

 

[susan92368]

thanks guys! he doesnt seem quite so interested today, but he's definitely keeping an eye on them lol

 

[Elysia]

Susan,

Sorry I am so late to this (had the flu there for a bit), but I think I can tell you what was going on. I, too, had pipes in with 2 cleaner shrimp. Most likely, the pipe isn't looking to eat your cleaner shrimp, but rather is attempting to snick the rippening eggs off of the shrimp's undersides. Which could also be why the pipe has suddenly given up (if the shrimp larvae were released last night.) I had banded pipes and their favorite thing in the world was to watch the shrimp for a time when they could nip a shrimp egg off the underside of a shrimp. It didn't make my shrimp very happy, though!

 

[namxas]

altho there was no mention of the shrimp being "berried", this is indeed true. my Janss' were so adept at picking the eggs off of peps, they could do it and the shrimp were none the wear.

good catch Elysia!

 

[susan92368]

wow! i never even thought of that! i dont know that i've ever noticed eggs... will have to check it out! thanks Elysia!

 

[rlpardue]

Over the past few days, I've witnessed my pair of banded pipefish being very interested in my pair of cleaner shrimp. Just last night, I actually saw one of the pipes snick at the underside of a scarlet "fire" shrimp. The pipes are also extremely interested when they see any large shrimp, especially ones with larvae or eggs on their undersides.

I keep most of my animals in pairs or harems, btw.

I can 99% confirm that banded pipefish enjoy pecking at shrimp larvae/eggs. I'm going to try and get some Nutramar Ova so that they'll have a more stable food supply.