Dragon pipe fish question

[rjd0521]

I bought a dragon pipefish last Friday for my sps tank to take care of red bugs on acropora.

He died four days later. Reason why?

My tank is full of pods and I thought that is what they were feeding on.

Can't put my finger on it.

 

[namxas]

Might have been the quality/condition of the stock.

Are there any other Syngnathids in residence?

What other tankmates did it have?

 

[rjd0521]

Are there any other Syngnathids in residence?

No

What other tankmates did it have?

1 clown fish
1 blue tang
1 yellow tang
4 blue green chromis

 

[rayjay]

Wow! I hope it's a large tank.

 

[namxas]

Was the pipe eating?

Did its tankmates pay any heed to it?

Where did you get the pipe?

Was it WC or CB?

 

[rjd0521]

Wow! I hope it's a large tank.

185g

Was the pipe eating?

Did its tankmates pay any heed to it?

Where did you get the pipe?

Was it WC or CB?

I saw the pipefish eat couple of times.

Tankmate left the pipe alone.

Bought at a LFS.

WC or CB? I don't know.

 

[goodtimes2]

I picked up 3 pipefish on the same day from the same source, I kept mine in a 20 QT tank, I bought some baby brine shrimp and they aggressively are eating this . I am also adding some cyclopeeze and nuvamar( small shrimp eggs ) to get them to feed on this as well. It may take a few weeks, but after they eat this supplemental food I then will add them to my 180 SPS tank. Even with a tank full of pods, it takes them some time period to adjust and many times our reef tank with a strong flow is too much for them to adjust. I also use prazi as a preventive measure for internal parasite and fluke. I did the same with some other dragonface pipefish and have them doing well in a 50 gallon LPS tank for over a year. They are an amazing fish .

 

[namxas]

The trouble with Syngnathids is that they MUST eat daily. Without food, their digestve system can shut down irreversibly in as little as 4 days (they lack a true stomach and can't hold food for later digestion). There's no telling how long the fish was at the wholesaler or the LFS, and whether it was eating then.

You really must get them eating and QT'd before turning them loose in your DT. This is especially true with DFs, as their snouts are small and its hard to get them eating sometimes.

Additionally, as goodtimes mentioned, it may have come in with intestinal parasites as well.

 

[TamiW]

My limited experience is that dragonface pipefish are really sensitive fish. I've been trying to establish a breeding pair for a while now, and it seems like every time I get close, one or the other dies. This past fall I had one die from the 30 minute car ride home; he was fine in store, and lost the other two I purchased at the same time within two weeks. The 4th survived, for a while. Then I added a male, and all was fine for two months, but now the female died. This is with multiple feedings per day of a combination of enriched baby brine shrimp, live copepods and cyclopeeze.

This is also my second go around trying to establish a pair. The first time, about two years ago, they were fine for a while, then one disappeared; followed not long after by the other. Then I gave up for a while.

I haven't QT'd mine - I'll be frank, I wasn't sure I could keep up with the feeding demands in a quarantine tank situation. I'm normally a quarantine-quarantine-quarantine person, but with so may people losing them during the breeders challenge on mofib during the quarantine process I'd hoped they'd have survived better directly into a reef tank.

 

[SantaMonica]

Too bad about target feeding. Gonna do everything I can to not have to do it, or have it automated, if I try a pipe.