food for pipefish

[mfinn]

I have a 50 gallon tank that has been setup for about a year with only a small yellow tang in it for about 6 months. It is gone now ( traded) and I am in the process of making it a lps tank with mostly hammers, torch, frogspawn type corals.
I would like to add a pipefish, maybe two.
What store bought foods will some pipefish thrive on?

I may move a matted file fish to this tank. I have some aptasias and majanos that need to be taken care of and this guy is a proven pest eater.

 

[mtc1966]

frozen mysis

 

[mfinn]

frozen mysis

really? something as simple as that.

 

[mtc1966]

thats what seahorses eat i believe pipes eat the same . but lets wait and see if anyone who has pipes feeds anything different. i just have seahorses.

 

[mfinn]

any others?

 

[Bela N]

Mine feed mostly from the tank, the rock work and under frag plugs hanging in egg crate. However I have seen them take floating Cyclopeeze (I turn off flow to feed fish). They wait till after the feeding frenzy of the other fish dies down. Very interesting to watch the tip of their rostrum is about 2-3 cm bellow the floating Cyclopeeze then their heads flick up and grab the prize.

 

[NatureNerd]

The species you select has a big impact on the answer to your question. I have kept Dragon faced pipes for many years. None of them ever ate anything that I put into my tank. Certainly, frozen mysis are too big for many pipes. I have had long term success with these pipes only because of a huge and stable pod population. I also needed to completely avoid any pod eating competition in the tank. That means no wrasses or other pod eaters. DFP's are sort of like mandarins in their feeding requirements. Describe your tank more. How much rock, fuge?, and flow. Also note that some pipes will not survive with some LPS corals.

 

[mtc1966]

i have read dragons are the easiest to keep but it doesn't really sound that way. pe mysis are very big but others have small ones . naturenerd so you think even small mysis is to big for them ?

 

[NatureNerd]

i have read dragons are the easiest to keep but it doesn't really sound that way. pe mysis are very big but others have small ones . naturenerd so you think even small mysis is to big for them ?

Dragon faced seem easy to me because they take care of themselves but if I had to get them to eat frozen food I would consider them very difficult. As far as mysis being to large for them, I think so. Some people have them eating cyclopeeze which is much smaller. Maybe because my reef has so many pods they just rather not even try frozen foods. Let your LFS feed them in front of you before you buy.

 

[mtc1966]

good advice thanks

 

[mfinn]

Describe your tank more. How much rock, fuge?, and flow. Also note that some pipes will not survive with some LPS corals.

My tank is a 30" x 20" x 20" approx. 50 gallons with a 25 gallon sump.
About 45 lbs of live rock. Sump has about 1/2 the area for a refugium that has chaeto in it. I have a swc mini hot skimmer.
Flow is a pair of tunze 6055's on a 7095 controller. Which can be dialed down to whatever......

The only permanent fish will be a single pipe fish or a pair.
Would like it to be DFP, but would be happy with another.

Like I said I do need to move my matted file fish over soon because of a few majano's that have popped up, it can be moved out when I need to.

I'm very curious to know which LPS corals would not be a good match for pipefish.