help with native pipefish

[jbardwel]

Hi,

in the waters of cape cod my 6 year old first spotted some small pipefish. They are about 2 inches long and this web site http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/14/661176/-Marine-Life-Series:-Pipefish suggests that they are S. fuscus." There are about 200 species found around the world, although here in New England there is only one, the Northern Pipefish (Syngnathus fuscus)."

I managed to get 2/2 home alive and set them up in a nano 8 gal biorb.
with at 77degree 10W heater. with a bunch of cheato from my 300 gallon tanks fuge.
Any advice on keeping them alive, they seemed to be eating stuff from the cheato. will they eat baby brine? any other advice?

 

[wdt2000]

I would remove the heater and just keep them at room temp. Brine will work, but watch water quality. I would also keep adding/removing cheato if it has lots of pods.

 

[coralnut99]

+1 on removing the heater. This isn't a tropical species and keeping temps. cool enough is one of the biggest challenges.

 

[jbardwel]

thanks! for the advice

thanks! for the advice

I pulled the heater out. They are still alive and looking fine, hanging out in the cheato, I cant tell if they are eating now or not, but when I put in the cheato they darted after a bunch of stuff. they must be pretty hardy as I had one held in a 500ml plastic bottle for 3 days at RT without anything no food no aeration, but they are so tiny that they cant be using up much o2 or producing much nitrate.

 

[namxas]

They probably are indeed S. fuscus. Northerns should be kept at less than 70*F, and more like 65*F. I'm not sure of the dimensions of your biorb, but this pipe typically grows to about 6.5", altho the largest was 13".

If the pipes are small, BBS and live copepods (demersal sp. such as Tisbe sp. are best) would be great to get them eating for you. Once they take to live and they've fattened up a bit, start mixing in a bit of frozen cyclopeeze or some Nutramar ova, gradually decreasing the live food.

 

[jbardwel]

Thanks again

Thanks again

I guess it time to pull out the chiller maybe I will get one of those little heat exchangers my 1/10 hp is probably a bit big

 

[jbardwel]

pipefish still doing fine

pipefish still doing fine

They are growing like crazy on baby brine. I pulled the heater and have let the tank run at ambient temp which varies from 22.5 C to 25.8 C, just keep adding cheato from my big tanks fuges once a week or so (pulling out the old cheato at the same time) and brine 2X dayly. Nitrate still at zero

 

[Paul B]

They are extreamly common here on Long Island and I can collect 50 of them with each drag of a net. They eat a lot and the adults are harder to keep. They will probably only eat live food.
In the sea they live on baby fish and tiny shrimp