Ghost Pipes

Bluetangclan

New member
Has anyone ever seen these for sale by either LFS or online stores? My tank is designed with pipes in mind with plenty of calurpa and seeded with pods plus what came in on the rock and I feel I can handle this difficult species. If anyone has seen them, could you tell me where?
 
unfortunately, nobody i know, even super experienced keepers and public aquaria have been able to crack the ghost pipe nut. these beauties are best left in the ocean for now.
 
Hi Bluetang,
I did know of a couple of people that were trying to keep them . I did hear from one that they were unable to keep the one they had alive and unfortunately I lost track of the other person and do not know the outcome of the pair they had.

There are many species that are just too sensitive and have very specialized needs that cannot be met by the average aquarist or even the most experienced and these are really not able to adapt to the captive environment.

These species should be left in the wild and I agree with Greg that the beautiful Ghost Pipe is one of those.

There are only a small number of people that actually post on the various sites, so we have no way of actually knowing if anyone has had any success with them but it would be great to have that information.
 
I might just go catch my own local pipes instead at the beach, be easier and they tend to be hardier. I figure they are going to wash up and die anyway, they arent strong enough swimmer to escape the surf where I found them last weekend.
 
Ive only seen a hand-full come into the trade online in the past 5 years. As said above they are a very difficult genus to keep. But i think with the rite dedication and tank they could be kept successfully. Getting them to feed would be the biggest obstacle.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15241366#post15241366 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danfrith
Ive only seen a hand-full come into the trade online in the past 5 years. As said above they are a very difficult genus to keep. But i think with the rite dedication and tank they could be kept successfully. Getting them to feed would be the biggest obstacle.

it's ALL about nutrition, however, as mentioned, it's not getting them to feed per se', and unfortunately, it's getting enuff food of the right type that folks can't seem to get right. a big part may also be that shipping stress and starvation are hard on these fish. SH and pipes lack a true stomach (they can't hold food for processing) and their digestive systems can shut down in as little as four days without food.

i also believe tank size and water quality is a huge issue with this particular genus. one would definitely definitely need to be a large footprint, cooler temp species setup with a constant supply of live pods, and even then they would most likely fail to thrive.

HTH
 
Well if we're talking about harlequin ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus) you would want a lower flow tank, these arent the greatest swimmers, even compared to other pipefish. To make them feel most comfortable you want to supply them with a host organism, or not so much a host but somewhere where they can be camoflauged. Every harlequin in the wild is seen next to another animal which they resemble in color. These host can range from Feather Stars to gorgonians, but I think just placing these guys in a tank with live rock and corals or caulerpa would be a bit foreign to them.
I say getting them to feed is hardest because in the beginning its likely they would only accept live foods such as benthic amphipods and copepods. The question is what species of these micro-invertabrates do they feed on. Eventually if you can get them to feed on live foods you could try transitioning to frozen mysis and cyclopeeze. These two foods are full of protien and are most commonly accepted by my pipefish (bluestripes, bandeds, and dragonface) as a first food transitioning from live. So nutrition isnt as big of a problem as is just getting them to eat in the first place. Although once eating frozen their still should be a sufficeint pod population in the tank to supplement their diet. Ive noticed in my bluestripes a huge reduction in egg count when the pod population is low.
This species hails from the tropical coral reefs of the indo-pacific so temperature wouldnt be to big of a deal, probably normal tank temperatures between 77-80.
Good luck if you find one but man are they hard to find.
 
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