Dragon Face Pipefish

J

JJohn

New member
Anyone have any experience with Dragon Face Pipefish in a SPS reef? How difficult to feed are they in a reef tank? Would my yellow tang pester it? Does anyone know if they really make any difference in Red Bug populations? The good doctors at LiveAquaria have these on sale. They claim they are effective. I am doubtful. Has anyone ordered fish from this vendor recently? Do they come healthy?

I have posted a similar question on the reef fisf forum. My tank is 75G with mostly SPS.

Any and all advice is appreciated,
John
 
foster's and smith

foster's and smith

I have ordered from foster's and smith on multiple occasions. The fish were always in great condition! I got 4 of my seahorses from them and a couple angels, shrimp, and other random stuff. I have never had problem with anything I got there. I ordered them around lunch, and I had them them following morning. They also have a 14 day garuntee on fish and 30 days on corals if anything should go wrong. You won't find that anywhere else.
 
I would have to agree. I have ordered from them serveral times as well and my Pipeface is doing great 1 month later in my SPS tank. I have serveral very large tangs and they leave it alone.
 
My b-f and I have a 75 gallon SPS reef also, he bought 2 dragon face pipefish b/c he found red bugs. It's hard to tell if they have been doing anything just b/c we had so many corals that did get infected. As for the yellow tang, he might be curious of what the pipefish eats. I think that it all depends, some fish can be pests and some will mind their own business. Liveaquaria is great! We order from there several times. I can only say 1 time a fish arrived dead, and they had no issue sending us new one the next day.They have great customer service.
 
Thanks Bridget and all others,

I am glad to hear someone else is trying this experiment. These pipefish seem to be cool fish, and if they can keep Red Bug populations in check, it would be great. I have a large number of acro-crabs that I don't want to lose to Interceptor treatments. The pipefish should not bother these acro-crabs but might just keep the RB populations at a sufficiently low level.

Let's post our results with these guys so that others may benefit. I have talked via email with one other reefer and he had very little luck with the RB issue but seemed to really love the pipefish anyways so he is glad he gave it a try. Do you know of anyone who has succeeded or failed using these fish for RB's?

I have a little fear that because of the LiveAquaria description of these fish, that they will be purchased for the RB job and many people will be dissapointed when they don't make a difference (bad for the reefer and could be bad for the pipefish).

Good luck,
John

Another question for the pipefish experts: I have only one. Do they need to be kept in pairs?
 
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I would definitely keep them in pairs or groups. Its hard to find a photo of them from the wild that doesnt have more than one in the frame.

>Sarah
 
I just got back from a trip to Bora Bora and the nearby lagoon had a number of rock formations that were covered in some species of dragon faced pipefish.

They seemed to be on formations that were dominated with what looked like porites corals. When they sit still they are very well camouflaged, especially with the shimmer lines. They seemed very brave, crawling around the rock in broad daylight with many triggers and such around. It seemed that anytime I startled one it knew exactly where to find it's mate and would swim to it first before they both swam off. The only one I saw alone was a tiny baby.
 
Okay, it sounds like I may have made a mistake. There is so little info out there about these pipefish. One of these guys is arriving here fedex today. If I need to add another for them to be successful in my reef, how do I ensure I get a pair? How do I determine gender? How do I communicate that info to LiveAquaria? Will they accept any mate or partner?

Thanks in advance,
John
 
Has anyone successfully kept these in a mixed reef that includes a RBTA? Just curious. I currently have a dragonface pipefish species tank cycling but was wondering if they would do well in my 210 mixed reef?
 
On another board I have heard that people had no problems with RBTA's and similar species anemones. I have a LTA so I hope I got the true story.


My DFP (pipefish) should arrive any minute now. I will report out how well it does in my 75G mixed (dominated by SPS's) reef.

John
 
IME, you dont need to keep the Corythiochthus species (dragon face pipefish) in pairs, most of the time they dont even swim around a large reef tank together, as opposed to the doryrhamphus genus where you find almost every specimen with a mate and they rarely leave each others side.
awsome fish.
Good luck!!
 
I'm not sure if they need to be male / female pairs honestly. I just notice that they are usually found in social groups, pairs trios and such.

The males that are of-age are somewhat stockier than females and are almost squared off through the middle when looking at them from above. Thicker in the middle at the very least I would say. Their bellies are not that dissimilar from the females' from what I remember, but they do have rudimentary pouches you might be able to notice. The eggs are clear - slightly yellowish if you happen to get lucky with a 'pregnant' male. Females are much more cylinder shaped throughout the body. I wish I had more obvious dimorphic points to offer up.

>Sarah
 
i have a dragonface in my mixed reef, however i still haven't found a fool proof way of sexing so i can find him a mate!!
 
Well, my Dragon (Faced) Pipefish (Is DFPF an appropriate acronym?) is doing great. Thank you all for the info you have given me. What a marvelous little fish. I have had marine fish for 20 years and this is one of the most fun fish I have ever had. He/she? is fascinating to watch. I am stunned by how small he is at about 2" long, see image.

He is eating like crazy. What he is eating, I have no idea, but, he is eating. He strikes at something every 45 seconds on average. Near my heavily RB infested SPS, he strikes every 20 seconds or so. Whatever he is eating is too small for me to see. He has not attempted to strike anything on the coral itself but, he has all along the base.

I hope he makes it through the night, if he does, I am pretty sure he will be with me a long time. He appears to be healthy and very active. He shows no fear of anything and just goes about his hunting. Great little fish.

Those SPS people might note that the increased strike rate near the coral could be a good sign. I have documented the number of RB's on the colony photographically. I can get an accurate count on the side facing outwards. I did this a couple days in a row. I will do this every couple days and see if the number decreases. I know it is not a scientific study but, it is the best I am willing to do. I will also observe his eating habits. It should be obvious if he starts to eat at the infested colony.


DFPF2S.jpg


John

Not a great picture but I did not want to scare him his first day in the tank. The flash tends to make some fish nervous.
 
Very nice looking. I have subscribed to this thread, so keep us posted on him. I am interested in knowing if he eats any sort of prepared foods, frozen, etc.
 
Reefer421, DFP will be ok with a RBTA, they do great in reef tanks, my male is pregnant very often, that girl LOL

I have had this pair for over a year with out problems, the red bug thing, I dont know, what I do know, is that this pipes snake around the LR all day looking for pods to feed upon, so if they see a little red bug, YUM YUM down it goes.

Liveaquaria or Foster & Smith, is great, will order anything from them

Jose
 
Does yours eat anything but pods? I just upgraded from a 55 to a 210 about a month ago and don't think I have sufficient pods yet. If I can get one that is eating prepared foods, I will put 2 in a 20 gal. tank dedicated to them until I feel the pod count is higher. Only trouble is 20 gal does not have tons of pods either. I really don't want him to starve to death.
 
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