Help me out with my Blue Stripe pipefish

acpoweradapter

New member
Hey guys, I recently bought a 2" blue stripe pipe for my Elos Mini 20 gal. He had been at the store for a month and they told me it had been eating pods and cyclops. So I went ahead and got him since I've been looking for one. But I have some questions now that I have it.

Is it nocturnal? It mainly stays in the rock during the day and when my lights dim, it lays on the rocks and then when its dark it comes out and swims around and looks like it is hunting for pods. Is it just getting used to the tank or will it always do this?

I also haven't seen it eat cyclops yet? I am getting more pods for my tank twice this week to stock it up higher than it currently is just in case and I am also ordering Nutramar Ova, but I would like it to eat cyclops as thats what I feed my tank. Could it just be getting used to a new tank?

One more thing.. for now.. my tank is a mixed reef, but it is pretty high flow I think, an MP10 normally running near 100% but it seems when the little guy comes out and gets directly in front of it he gets blown around, can they not tolerate high flow? What should I run my MP10 on? I would like at least 75% for my SPS.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
Bluestripes tend to hide under rockwork/ledges and don't seem to like super bright light. When I first got my bluestripes I fed them cyclopeeze, but I hadn't seen them eat any. However, I noticed they only seem to eat the red ones(the cyclopeeze I have are red and clearish, I think the clear ones are exoskeletons.). As long as your patient and have a large pod population you should be fine. Bluestripes are found more in reef zones, so in my opinion they can take any amount of flow an mp10 can pump out.

Do you have a male or female?
 
I'm not sure yet. I was going to take a picture and post it up, but all I have is my blackberry right now (parents borrowed my camera and they live 200 miles away) and it can't take very good pictures at night. I will try again tonight.

I have the red cyclopeeze so hopefully that works. I have a pretty good pod population, my rock is around 4 years old, just got rid of my sandbed a couple weeks ago but they have started a comeback and its so little I can't imagine him putting to big a dent before I get a couple starters of pods this week.

I'm picking up a toadstool next Sunday because when I bought him, he hung out in a toadstool for the month the store had him.

The light thing is what I figured, hopefully as my tank grows in it will have more ledges for him to hide under.


Anyways, I'll try to get a picture tonight and post. How do you tell if it is a male or female?
 
Males have a flatter, wider belly (brood pouch) and they have little bumps on top of their snout, almost like saw teeth.
 
I believe it is male then. Because the main thing that sticks out when I look at him are some bumps he has on his snout. I'll still try to snag a picture to confirm.
 
What are some good tank mates? Before I was planning a Tanakas Wrasse, a mandarin a friend has been training to prepared food for about 3 months now (still going to wait on it for a few more weeks at least, I'm in no hurry). And 2-3 orange lined cardinals.

Is there anything else I should consider? Right now its a cleaner shrimp and a pipefish.
 
In my opinion I would avoid the mandarin. The Bluestripe and the mandarin will compete for pods. The cardinals are cool, but they have big mouths. They possibly could eat smaller fishes. The wrasse is a good idea. They are a species of possum wrasse right?

Here's an example of what I plan on keeping in the tank with my pipefish broodstock longterm.

-2 ORA sharknose gobies
-2 yasha haze gobies
-3 pom pom crabs
-6 sexy shrimp
- 1 candy pistol shrimp
- 1 flaming prawn goby
- 1 panda goby
 
Yeah, the tanakas is a species of the possum wrasse. I am also considering adding one more pipefish once I know for sure if this is a male/female.

I do have a tailspot blenny on order at a LFS that I think should be fine in the tank.
 
I have a bluestripe in a 58g SPS reef with an MP40 in reefcrest at 100%. Pipe has no problem handling this flow, I have had him for 10 months. He eats frozen mysis right in the middle of all big fast fish when I feed the tank. He rarely comes out during the day except to eat, but as soon as the lights come out he is everywhere. Not out at night though, so I think they more like dawn and dusk. Seems most people report the same thing with these guys. I can't believe how he sucks down those big mysis shrimp, although he can only eat like 3-4 in a sitting.
 
my buddy has a bluestripe and he said it looks to be losing wieght he saw it eating brine shrimp and peices of mysis when he first got it but now he hasnt seen it eat any he thinks his tank ran out of pods because it is only in a 15 gallon any ideas?
 
Try feeding frozen mysis. I would try to get ahold of hikari mysis in particular because of the small mysis size. I have yet to meet a flagtail pipefish in good health that won't learn to eat live mysis. In the mean time, I'd also try offering newly hatched brine shrimp and adult brine shrimp (both live).
 
I got mine to eat cyclopeeze like a pig. But sadly, the other night I was near the tank and I heard a weird grinding noise, and the little guy had been sucked into the vortech.. I had just fed him like an hour prior.

It sucks, so I'm probably going to stay away from fish who can fit into the pump for a while.
 
I got mine to eat cyclopeeze like a pig. But sadly, the other night I was near the tank and I heard a weird grinding noise, and the little guy had been sucked into the vortech.. I had just fed him like an hour prior.

It sucks, so I'm probably going to stay away from fish who can fit into the pump for a while.

It's more likely it died and then got sucked into the pump. But who knows. Too bad.
 
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