Dragon Face Pipefish

[JJohn]

Here's an update. This DFPF is even more active today. He cruises over every inch of every rock. His strike rate is dropping (about once every minute or so). He completely ignored small live brine shrimp when offerred. He is getting a lot to eat from my tank so I am not worried yet. I will try cyclopeze (spelling?) later tonight.

He spent the morning by the heavily infested SPS but, when I returned from work he was on the other side of the tank, several inches from any SPS. I will tabulate RB population numbers tonight or Friday night to set a baseline and see if there is any change.

as side notes: Live Aquaria seems to be a great vendor. These pipefish are really amazing fish. My tank has been setup for ten years so it might not be average. I know it has a great deal of pods and I have no other real predators. I truly hope I can keep this fish happy and healthy.

John

 

[JJohn]

Another update:

He ate some frozen food, called "Ocean Nutrition Cyclops" tonight. Probably had only five bites and then went back to eating whatever he is finding on my liverocks and sand. He is constantly patrolling the tank and finding something. He spent another twenty minutes at the base of the RB infected SPS. There is hope he is doing something good.

Lobster: in answer to your question... I have a Mag 9.5 as a return pump and four MJ1200's in the tank. Flow level would be considered moderate for an SPS tank and super-high for a Seahorse/Pipefish tank. The pipefish seems fine with the flow. He tends to stay on rocks most of the time but occassionally shoots across an open space.

The other fish in my reef ignore him. I have a pair of Common Clowns (currently with eggs), a Yellow Tang, a Tail Spot Blenny, and a few Chromis. Even if I show that this particular DFPF has no value in eating RB's, I too am very glad I got one. He is a fascinating little predator.

John

 

[seamonkey2]

John...your comments about flow in a tank for SPS and SH are backwards, horses more than pipes "do not" like high/fast flow, they prefer slow steady flow and areas of "very little" flow, to relax and hang around, SPS like high flow.

my DFPF eats frozen,pods and BB, they just eat alot LOL, eventually your will too, when they find the frozen food, in a crevice, they will peck at it and they just may like it, good luck on that.

I havent taken any pics of my tank in a while

Jose

 

[JJohn]

SeaMonkey:

Thanks, but you misunderstood my post. We fully agree on the flow issue. What I tried to say is that my tank would be considered moderate in comparison with most other SPS tanks. It would be considered very high flow when compared to most SeaHorse tanks.

Questions for you: How many times per day do you add frozen food to your tank for your pipefish? Do you spot feed? What is BB? I have been using the acronym RB for Red Bugs (a micro crustacean that feeds on SPS's)

 

[seamonkey2]

ahhhhh, sorry John I can't read LOL

I feed once a day during the week, twice a day on weekends, is a 215ga tank, with about 250 pounds of LR, there are about 12 or more SH different species(yes I know, some people dont like that, my horses are ok with that), and about 6 species of pipes, there is a ton of a clean up crew

I feed about 60cc of enrich defrosted mysis food per feeding, and put most on the water colum and skirt a bunch beetween the rock they hunt all day

BB= baby brine, I also hatch BB for both of my tanks every day, is an easy task to do

RB=red bugs, dont have any and dont want any LOL

the pipes eat everything, pods, BB, frozen, the little pigs are fat really chunky LOL

Jose

 

[JJohn]

Another update:

DFPF is doing great. He will eat a bite or two of the frozen cyclops food but vastly prefers the living things he is catching. Just a great little fish to watch. He spent most of the day near my acro's but, I never saw him pick anything off them. I only observed a total of 45 minutes during the 11 hour photocycle. Not really a good sampling.

It is too early to make sense of any data but here is a point or two anyway: On 10/18 before he had a chance to affect RB populations, there were 166 RB's visible on my worst infested coral.

Today 10/20, after two days with him in the tank, there were 101 RB's.

Please don't jump to conclusions. Note that on the 15'th there were only 85. This data means very little as I can only view and count one side of the infested colony and we don't know how the RB populations fluctuate without a predator. With more points we might be able to make some guesses on my particular fish/corals/RB's. If promising, we can try another experiment in a different tank with a different DFPF.

My RB count method does however cover the infested coral the same way each time. I take the exact same photo, enhance the image the same way, subdivide the surface area, get a count for each section and then add the numbers. The method is very repeatable.


For those watching, here is some eye-candy

John

 

[tony13]

Great pic John, I was concidering a DFPF for a while now and I think you just sealed the deal with that pic and story.

Jose, What are your thought about having them in pairs? I would rather just get one but if absolutely neccesary I could do two.

 

[seamonkey2]

Tony13, since I have a pair, from my experience, they seem to be happier, I know of people having a single specimen and reporting no problems, but....wouldn't you like a girl or boyfriend

and as pointed out above, they seem to be group fish or at least prefer to be in groups

jose

Jose

 

[rssjsb]

Thanks for this thread - I'm following with great interest. I know you mentioned the tang, but what other fish do you have in there with the pipe?

My LFS had some of these, and I was tempted, but didn't know how they would do with my mystery wrasse and midas blenny.

 

[danfrith]

These pipefish are safe with almost all reef fish. In the wild they are naturally found on a coral reef( Coral sea, great barrier reef, Indo- Pacifica), If youve seen the Discovery channels: Blue Planet, theres a pair of them hovering over a feild of stag horn acropora. Most fish and corals ignore them completely.

 

[pledosophy]

Nic Pic

Now I want some too.

 

[JJohn]

First the good news: The DFPF is definately paying more attention to the infected corals. See image #1. He/she is also eating a bit of frozen food. Usually about five bites before swimming off to hunt for itself. He is getting along with everything in the tank and is still a delight.

Now the not so good news. Red Bug populations are holding steady, no real difference in the numbers at this point, it is however, still early.

RSSJSB: The fish I had before the Pipe were 1 Yellow Tang, pair of common clowns, and 5 green chromis. Because Live Aquaria has a rule that minimum orders must be >$30 and the Pipe was only $15 I ordered another fish I had wanted for a while - a Tail Spot Blenny. He likes to hang out the same place as the DFPF and they do stop to look each other over but, no conflicts so far. I think they will be fine. See image #2. I also believe that a midas would be fine with one of these little pipefish. I don't know about the wrasse.

My dilema on wether to get another is simple - Would two decimate the pod population and subsequently starve? Also, if it ends up that I have to treat for Red Bugs, my pod population would crash and then I would have two hungry pipefish. I am not sure what to do. I would like to get a second one if the two hung out together. That would be fun to watch and better for them too I suspect. Lastly, I do not know how to determine gender.

SEAMONKEY: Do your two stay close together or swim together? Do they frequently interact?

John

 

[seamonkey2]

they hang together, if you spot one, the other one is usually close by.

I'm glad to hear they are pecking at the frozen, if there is not enough bugs to eat, they will start to eat frozen more, one little suggestion, put some froze in rock crevaces and they will peck at it.

and since the female keeps the male pregnant, I think they interact A LOT

Jose

 

[pledosophy]

The tail spot blenny has been next on my list for some time. Glad to see a speciment other then the add. Maybe I'll just go for the same deal you got all around

 

[shqueens]

What other fish do you keep with your DFPF, other than sea horses?

 

[seamonkey2]

lets see...
2 long snout pipes
2 dwarf pipes
2 african blue pipes
1 trumpet pipe
1 powder brown
1 powder blue
1 alligator pipe
1 long horn cowfish
1 female bird wrasse
1 yellow wrasse
1 hans pipe
3 multibanded pipe
2 small banded pipe
1 orangetail file fish
1 tassle file fish
16 horses

I think thats it

Jose

 

[shqueens]

Thats awsome, I just started my sh/pf tank and so far so good. Dont really have much in there but 2 sea horses and tommarow 2 DFPF that im getting from Fosters and Smith. Cant beat that price!
your file fish dosent bother them?

 

[tony13]

Great pictures John. Tell me alittle about what camera and settings your using please.
It's funny to see that those are the two fish I was thinking about getting.

 

[SkinyChinaMan]

those are really nice pictures.. new pipefish that i got.. not sure on the proper name yet.. but its really cool.. here are some pictures to share.. so far 2 days in the tank and started to see it eat cyclopeez (at least i think he did) lol

 

[MarkKlier]

Isnt that a ghost pipefish? MK