Help! Pipefish care and feeding

[mrdamsel]

Hello! I am a beginner and have 6 months of experience and have had my tank setup for only 2 and a half months. I have mastered feeding and dosing the tank. I never ever overfeed the tank either. I feed the tank with prime reef flakes and PE mysis shrimp. I was wondering what would be the hardiest pipefish for my 40 gallon and, if any, what should I feed it. My current livestock is the following:

x1 small tank bred occelaris clown

x1 small yellow tang (it is only 4 inches and is very happy in my tank and interacts well with other fish. When it gets bigger, I will give it to my LFS who has a 150 gallon.)

x1 blue velvet damsel tank bred and is very peaceful for a damsel. It often plays with my clown and never has ever harmed anything.

x1 lawnmower Blenny who I give a sheet of seaweed every 4 days to.

 

[mtc1966]

other then the blenny i don't believe your current stock would be compatible with pipe fish. they would out compete them for food.

 

[TamiW]

A flagtail pipefish is the only thing I would consider attempting in your setup - however I would get rid of the damsel first. They get meaner as they get older, and yours is probably very young yet. You'll also likely need to get a smaller type of mysis, either hikari or mini-mysis.

 

[small alien]

a flagtail pipefish is the only thing i would consider attempting in your setup - however i would get rid of the damsel first. They get meaner as they get older, and yours is probably very young yet. You'll also likely need to get a smaller type of mysis, either hikari or mini-mysis.

+1

 

[NatureNerd]

Pipefish are difficult to feed. Mine refuses all foods except the pods he hunts for all day long. Unless you get real lucky and have lots of pods in your tank, they will perish. That is my experience with dragon faced pipefish. I have tried every food I can find. If it isn't alive, he won't touch it.

 

[namxas]

I agree with Tami...go with flagfins. I've kept D. janssi (Janss' pipefish) in a community reef with excellent results. If your tank is that young, unless you QT them and get them eating and weaned onto frozen mysis, your DT won't support them.

 

[Reefers4U]

so... as long as your tank has enough pods (like supporting draggonets) and calm reef inhabitants - no meanie damsel fish or aggro angels - then reef tanks can support pipefish?

I see pipefish in the reef while scuba diving all the time.

 

[Luis A M]

Expecting pipes or mandarins to survive just on the natural harp.copepod population of your tank leads usually to failure.They must be offered external food,live first and then weaned to frozen stuff.

 

[small alien]

I've had best luck with nutramar prawn roe and hikari mysis. PE is a bit large. Also, try frozen copepods like cyclopeeze.

 

[RyanTurner]

My Blues stripes love nutramar Ova and cyclopeeze.

 

[Luis A M]

It depends on species but also on individuals.My D.excisus takes everything and is the easiest species to keep.My D.dactilyophorus pair so far has not taken anything other than live copepods.