dragon face pipefish

coral acquisition

coral acquisition

Active member
hi saw this pipefish, i think its called dragon face. its real plain colored, white n gray i think. i want to get one but dont know anything about them. have a few questions

im starting a new tank. around a 20 cube with 150w mh.
thinking of making it a zoa tank or acan or a mix, question is, how many of
those pipefish can i put in there, this is an aio tank so i'll just plumb for a chiller.

what else would i need? wHat temps, water parameters.
can i add any othwr fish? i have a clown pair, six line and damsel on my other tank, can they get along with the clown pair?

is there a good thread or book here i can read?

thanks
 
Unfortunately, there really aren't any good books (yet) about pipefish. Reef Fish, by Scott Michael (v. 1 of the series) covers the seahorse and pipefish family, and most of the information in there is reasonably good (although some of his stocking suggestions are a little extreme.)

There are a greater number of suitable tankmates for pipefish than there are for seahorses, but not a great degree more. You still need to be careful about stinging corals, especially for dragon faces, as they regularly hover just above the substrate, looking for food.

You don't say what type of clowns you have. I think it may depend on the species whether or not I would chance it with a pipe. And a pair may be riskier than a single clown. Depending on the individual fish, the only clownfish species I would likely consider housing w/ a pipefish would be ocellaris, percula, or perhaps one of the skunk species.
 
its a percula pair. guess i'll just keep reading on forums and ask as many questions as i can. can they be trained to feed frozen food.
 
I've got 2 of the dragon-faced pipefish. Under good lighting, you can see lines of purple/pink- fuschia across the body. They may look drab, but once in your tank, they really 'lite' up. Mine are eating frozen foods. Nutra-Mar, plankton, cyclops, live brine( as a treat) and Mysis. I have a pr of B & W clowns, Bengai Cardinals and SH. And a tasseled Tilefish. They all live happily in the tank. No aggression on from the clowns at all.
 
nanafish - do you have corals in your tank too? i was thinking of putting them in a 30gal cube with acans and zoas. maybe a frogspawn. do you think they'll be ok with that?

what is their natural environment?
 
In general, I would avoid any coral that can/will eat a fish. Dragonfaces move slower than the so-called "reef-pipes," the flag-finned/flag-tailed pipes. I'm not sure if elegance coral (Catalaphyllia sp.) and hammer, frogspawn, and anchor coral (Euphyllia spp.) would be a good match; each have strong nematocysts, a williness to feed, and long sweeper tentacles. You may want some input from someone who tried pairing the two. Acans and zoas should be okay.
 
I've not purchased any acans, because I was told that they have been known to eat slow moving fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14540097#post14540097 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mysterybox
I've not purchased any acans, because I was told that they have been known to eat slow moving fish.
Click to expand...

Really?! Oh my. Okay, then I would say that the Acans are a wild card at this point. Seek more advice!
 
I would not recommend putting them in with any frogspawns and probably not acans. if you are going to keep pipefish or seahorses you are very limited as to which corals you can have. Some people may keep theirs with a variety of corals but IMO you are just rolling the dice, there is alot of evidence that keeping them with stinging corals can lead to tail-rot and some other common ailments. This is just my opinion and I am no expert but I have done alot of reading on this subject and am just relaying what I have learned to you.
 
How about SPS? I have a 90g that I have been thinking about sea horses going in, but I like the pipe fish better. I have a softball or little bigger of Frogspawn, but it is higher in the tank. On the bottom, I have 3 hairy mushrooms, a variety of zoos, a colony of blasto, and a couple of clams.

Any thoughts on this? The one LFS has had a dragon faced pipe for a couple of weeks now and have wanted one for a while. Do you guys have luck getting them to eat frozen at all? I feed rods food and PE Mysis usually once a week or so.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14554724#post14554724 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fireworm
How about SPS? I have a 90g that I have been thinking about sea horses going in, but I like the pipe fish better. I have a softball or little bigger of Frogspawn, but it is higher in the tank. On the bottom, I have 3 hairy mushrooms, a variety of zoos, a colony of blasto, and a couple of clams.

Any thoughts on this? The one LFS has had a dragon faced pipe for a couple of weeks now and have wanted one for a while. Do you guys have luck getting them to eat frozen at all? I feed rods food and PE Mysis usually once a week or so.
Click to expand...


definitly no seahorses or pipefish in your tank with all those stinging corals.
 
Well that sucks..... in my pony tank can I put a pistol shrimp in there to help keep the bottom of the tank cleaned up?
 
Generally speaking, clams are not thought to be appropriate tankmates for seahorses or pipefish. Some have done it successfully, but most often those people know both their clams and their pipes or horses well, and know that the pipes/horses will either avoid the clams or that the clams do not react much to touching, shadows, and the like. It really isn't in the best interest to house the two together.

Zoanthids are generally considered safe to house w/ either horses or pipes. Mushrooms in general are pretty beign; just keep away from the giant elephant ear mushroom (its a fish eater.)

I wouldn't consider Blastos a big deal, if you aren't trying to keep fry. Again, frogspawns are NOT a good idea -- whether with pipes or horses.

SPS are not as big a deal w/ pipes... IMO. They aren't going to be hitching to them. But your frogspawn and clams aren't good tankmates.

Here is a good reference (I agree w/ almost all of it): http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates/lps.shtml
 
OK, I was a little shocked to see the acans, favites and blastos rated as a 2 and acropora rated as a 3. I'm not sure that the information given applies to dragon face pipefish. As I've been reading that lps are more risky than sps for them. Any thoughts on this?

I'm trying to figure out if I can house a pair of dragon face pipefish in a 40 breeder with the current inhabitants:

baby tail spot blenny
baby randalls shrimp goby
zoas
sps (acropora, monti caps, scroll coral)
lps (favia, favites, acans, blastos, chalices)

I would also want to add a pair of bangaii cardinals later on.
 
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