Doryrhamphus japonicus

[ThRoewer]

Today I scored a rare find: a male of Doryrhamphus japonicus from Indonesia.
I was actually just looking for a Doryrhamphus excisus female and therefore just looking at the snouts of the caged pipefish at the store. Only after taking a closer look I notice that one of the 3 males was not colored like the others.
I have been after this pipefish for decades and it is the first time I have seen one in real life.
Here a video of him with the African D. excisus.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9uXJ9Qq8OEo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(sorry for the vertical video, the stupid phone switched it without me noticing it.)

Now I just need to find him a female of his own species...

 

[ThRoewer]

Well, after checking the reference books it turns out that this might actually be a Doryrhamphus malus. D. japonicus should have two narrow blue stripes and this one has just one. Though D. malus supposedly only comes from the Australian Great Barrier Reef...

 

[ThRoewer]

Since they came from the same tank at the store I quarantine them together and they behave like a pair, always swimming next to each other. I kind of wonder if they will spawn and if what the babies might look like...

 

[ThRoewer]

Well, turns out the African D. excisus female is a racist... I caught her attacking the D. malus male and had to separate them and put her with a male of her own kind I got a month earlier.

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[rayjay]

Maybe she is NOT a racist, but has something against MALES so you will have to watch here with other males now.

 

[ThRoewer]

No, she gets along fine with the male of her species.

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[rayjay]

Did she get along with the OTHER male initially?

 

[ThRoewer]

Did she get along with the OTHER male initially?

It looked like it.