How long have you kept pipefish alive?

[Ralph ATL]

I know some folks have kept pipefish longer or as long as I have, so I was wondering how long you have kept them? please discuss your secrets in keeping them alive, i.e., what size tank, food, inhabitants, fuge, pod supplements, etc. I've had my dragonface since 10/23/2006 in a full blown reef tank, fuge, 2 x Tunze 6000 on controller, with various inhabitants.

Thanks!
Ralph

 

[suzimcmullen]

I have just moved mine from a 30 gallon tank to a 55 gallon tank. I've never had more than a hang on the back filter. I do have a separate trash can set up in my closet where I keep amphipods, copepods, plants, rock etc. I collect these for my seahorse/pipefish 3-4 days per week. I feed enriched brine shrimp. I've tried many types of food for the brine and never found a formula I am terribly happy with.

I don't have tons of rock in my main tank and am just now keeping them in a bare bottom. I was so tired of the sand and just decided to leave it out when I switched to the 55.

I keep lots of chaeto right in my main tank to help the amphipods hide and reproduce in the main tank too.

I feed the brine out 3-4 times daily.

Suzi

 

[rssjsb]

I've kept a female bluestripe pipe for over 3 years. Started in a 20 gallon and now she's in a 40. Eats frozen mysis and cyclopeeze and picks off rocks once/day.

No luck with the males beyond a few months.

 

[danfrith]

I lost my female bluestripe back in january. I had her for a little ovr 3 years. The longest ive kept a male alive is about year.

 

[Ralph ATL]

right now my concern is my pipefish. BIG CONCERN!
I'm just a bit nervous as last week I just upgraded to a new tank. So I now have, New Glass, New Sump, New Sand, Clean Glass, removal of HOB extra fuge.............I have plenty of Chaeto, but not enough pods! I'm adding Live Phyto (Nannochloropsis oculata), stocking Tisbe Pods, and adding a few hundred live baby brine every day. My frozen food includes cyoclopeeze & oyster eggs. I can't wait for my algae bloom! LOL!

 

[suzimcmullen]

My pipefish eat brine. But I grow it out and try and get it larger for them. Sometimes my brine get huge. Other times I can't seem to get them to grow as large. I have been growing them out for over a year and never found the perfect formula and cleaning schedule for consistent results. I will tell you they love them most when they are more than a quarter of an inch long.

Suzi

 

[rayjay]

Suzi, for what it's worth, I've switched to feeding brine with just two basic products now.
I start with live nannochloropsis (green water) for the first week, and then switch over to using Algamac Protein Plus, which is a powder that I mix in a blender for two minutes.
I use very high density growing of brine so it takes them about 5 to 6 weeks to get them to adult reproducing size.
Probably for lower density growing, I would switch from green water to Algamac Protein Plus after 3 or 4 days as they grow at a much faster rate at lower density cultures.
I could use the Protein plus right off the bat, but for me, importing the product from California to Canada is expensive for shipping, customs and taxation and exchange. (triples the original cost basically) Growing nanno is cheap.
Once a week, I gut load the brine that I'm feeding to my seahorse fry or seahorse adults, with Algamac 3050 which is mostly schizochytrium, a fatty acid which as a powder, stores longer than the Selco emulsion products I used to use.
The Protein plus already uses some of this 3050 enrichment as a part of it's makeup. The major part of the Protein plus appears to be spirulina powder, an excellent food by itself.
It makes my cultures of brine much better by being able to harvest at any time and any size and not have to gut load the brine, as they are basically being gut loaded by the food they eat all the time.
A drawback is that the Protein Plus comes in kilo bags but perhaps you can split portions of the bag for others in the hobby.
You could check with Dan at SS as he already sells small packets of the Algamac 3050 for enrichment.
I also use this Algamac Protein Plus as the only food to culture my rotifers as the density I can achive per container is probably at least double what I can do with green water.

Algamac Protein Plus

 

[suzimcmullen]

I did use the algamac product Dan sells and never saw any better or faster results. But I agree with you that it's great to have them already gut loaded.

I go through a massive amount of brine so growing them that slowly is space intensive with so many jars at various stages. I was able to get them to adult size in 8 days at one point. But the cost was prohibitive and was a lot more work than growing them more slowly. I had to feed them so much food that the tanks would become literally bogged down with their shed skin cells. I had to change the water twice daily to achieve that kind of growth. So when I was doing that I was using around 12 gallons per day of saltwater. I can NOT afford that much salts in a months time on a regular basis. So I have been trying to find a better, quicker result without it being such a messy process. But I suppose if I think about it, since they shed their skins 20 times in their growth, having all that shedding of skin in just 8 days can't be anything but messy.

I also tried a much larger water volume and growing them in the 10 gallon tank. But again, it was taking up so much counter space and I had 3 air pumps going to make sure I didn't have an accidental crash due to pump failure. That was annoying and LOUD! LOL.

Suzi

 

[rayjay]

In case of more discussion, I have replied on another thread as brine shrimp is off topic to this thread.
From "How long have you kept pipefish alive?"

 

[suzimcmullen]

Not really. The OP said he is worried about his pipes having enough to eat which is why I started talking about brine shrimp. It's right on topic.

Suzi

 

[Ralph ATL]

To set the record straight, any discussion specifically about the care of pipes will not offend me whatsoever! Great discussion!

Ralph

 

[pledosophy]

I converted my pipes to frozen in about three days. IMO it is a bit easier in my situation to do that, then to keep a separate culture going for them, or to deal with the rest of the complexities of artemia. To each there own.

They converted with the same basic barebottom method you would use on a WC seahorse. Since the first snick, they readily accept frozen foods, but still hunt the tank for pods.

JME

 

[suzimcmullen]

I have never had any luck getting anything converted to frozen. I guess I get too scared and give in too quickly.

My 3 southern erectus babies did not start taking frozen until I finally decided to move them into the tank with their mom. As soon as they saw her eat frozen, they decided to try it too.

My mandarin and my scooter learned the same way.

Suzi

 

[small alien]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15467870#post15467870 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pledosophy
I converted my pipes to frozen in about three days. IMO it is a bit easier in my situation to do that, then to keep a separate culture going for them, or to deal with the rest of the complexities of artemia. To each there own.

They converted with the same basic barebottom method you would use on a WC seahorse. Since the first snick, they readily accept frozen foods, but still hunt the tank for pods.

JME

how did you do it? Wean them over that is.