Looking to start up a pipefish only tank

[mattyice]

Well guys i would say im pretty knowledgeable about reefs and SW fish, but pipefish would be a new adventure for me, I'm looking for something calm to setup in my office and i want pipe fish!

let me know if this is going to be a good setup...feel free to give me any advice you can PLEASE i need it lol

-50G breeder
-20G long for a sump (mostly a fuge with lots of cheato)
-small external pump for flow
-about 40 lbs of fine sand
-about 30-40 lbs of Tonga Fusion LR
-lighting would be 6 Nova T5NO Retrofit lights
-brine shrimp hatchery, a few bottles of live pods
-a few snails and hermits for clean up crew

im hoping that with all of that i could have 6 pipefish, is that too many to have in a tank? (i would like a pair of African Bluestripe, pair of Multibanded, and a pair of Dragonface)

i will also be adding baby brine and cyclopeeze for supplimental food over the pods in the tank a few times a day, the tank will be running without any pipefish for at least a month to let the tank cycle, the pods to populate heavily, and to get the tank stable, i will be using a small 2.5G tank to try and keep the baby brine alive using some phytoplankton or oyster eggs

so any problems?

 

[mattyice]

anyone?

 

[Pea-brain]

Heh. Sorry but this board can move kinda slow. The mantis shrimp board is pretty fast considering its one of the most dreaded animals in reefkeeping I don't think there will be a problem, just make sure that the bluestripe pipe pair is either male and female, or female and female. Males are territorial and will kill eachother. My biggest advice is get some trained to eat frozen krill or cyclopeeze so you don't have to worry about pod populations getting too low.

Dan

 

[nynex]

Your setup sounds good. Im currently setting up a 20x20x12 cube tank for my
mated pair of dragon faced pipes.

But Ive had problems with the company who made my tank. So Im currently having
it remade.

Im not sure about the number of pipes you could put in your size tank. I know
they consume quite a bit of pods. But with your size fuge, you should be good
with 6 in the tank. Im new to Pipes too. So im learning right now as well..

I was thinking about putting a seahorse in with my 2 dragons. Not sure yet.

 

[mattyice]

well i have access to copepods in a bottle so thats not a problem, knowing the guy i will be getting them from he has every fish eating within a day no matter what

so im going to stick to the plans above and go from there

 

[skhle]

I got this idea from a pet store guy long ago, use egg crage and screen door mess glue to back wall, that will make pods nest and multiply fast, pipe fish tank is my next set up ? hopefully

 

[mattyice]

that is a really good idea! since i want it to have a real clean look i was thinking about shoving little balls of cheato into the cracks, crevices, and caves in the LR to give little nests all over the place

 

[rssjsb]

Please keep us updated on your progress. I'm thinking of doing something similar in my 40 gallon once I move its current inhabitants to their new 90 gallon home. I have to say, I wouldn't plan on keeping pipes alive on supplemental food sources, since it may be impossible to get them to eat frozen and it's harder than you think to keep adding enough pods to sustain them.

I have been unable to sustain dragonfaces in a smaller tank with only a small HOB refugium adding Tiggerpods, cyclopeeze, and minimysis (even live mysys) and am somewhat reluctant to even get anymore. I'll see how it goes when the 40 has been fishless for awhile.

That said, I think your setup is big enough (esp with a fuge) that you should be ok.

Bluestripes are a piece of cake. I've kept them fat and happy in a 20 long with no supplemental feeding at all. I would amend the advice someone gave you upthread only to say that if you're going to add more than one female, make sure you've got a male in the tank. My experience is that females will kill each other if they're not in a harem. It's probably better to keep them in pairs.