Dragonfaced Pipefish Food&Tankmates

[theresearcher]

I am looking to get one of these, but am worried on tank mates and feeding. Actually, mostly on feeding. I have heard that some people keep them even with triggers w/o any problems, so I think my tank mates will be just fine. If I can't get one that is already eating frozen, what is the cheapest way to train it?

 

[G4546]

Heya researcher! Happy new year! Hmmm, dragon pipes are delicate little guys who eat invisible food I would highly avoid placing them with aggressive fish such as a trigger. Pending on the trigger species, I'd love to see a small video clip of them in the same aquaria That aside, they have super tiny mouths.. Even the reef caviar can hardly fit in! Cyclopeeeeeeeze )) seems to work, but the one that we care for roams around eating invisible foods from the BB and racks.

HTH

-
G

 

[Jan B]

If you are still considering dragonfaced pipefish, I have had them over the past 5 years. They do best in a species only tank. I feed them plenty of copepods and bbs. I have not had success training them to frozen mysis...their snouts are too small. I have also keep the blue striped pipefish. They are easier to train to frozen mysis . I have one in a tank with a mandarin fish . The two are fine together and eat the same diet( bbs, bs, mysis, and copepods)

 

[goodtimes2]

Nutramar Ova, which are prawn eggs worked for me with both dragon face and blue striped pipefish. Both of mine feed on whatever was natural in my mixed reef tank for about 4 months before they adapted to feeding on the shrimp eggs with a low flow feeding response with my pumps. I had the blue stripe for over 2 years and the dragon face for about a year. You need to have a mature tank to increase your survival rate, as they will pick on a lot of invisible type food initially .

 

[Jan B]

goodtimes2- After starting to feed Nutramar Ova, how long did it take the dragonface pipe to recognize this as food?

 

[goodtimes2]

It took probably 2 or 3 months, before that they were just picking on the rocks for very small copepods.