Mixing Species

[CuttleKid]

I was wondering if you can mix different species of seahorses and pipefish? right now i have a 50 gallon cube and it houses a pair of reidi and four bangaii cardinalfish. Im planning on trading in the cardinals for some cleaner snails so they wont be a problem down the road. I plan on getting a pair of H. barbouri and H. fuscus along with several different species of pipefish such as janss', blue lined, messmate, and maybe a banded. will this be allright. Do different species of ponies fight? Also will they hybridize because i dont want that at all? Are any of these species known for that? will different pipes fight? Down the road i hope to breed these guys and maybe even ATTEMPT to raise the pipes if thats possible. If it is please let me know because i will gladly purchase a kreisel tank if nesseccary? I know thisis a lot of questions so please answer as many as possible and maybe throw in a bit other info.

THANK YOU

 

[ann83]

Yes, seahorses will hybridize. For sure H. reidi and H. barbouri can, I don't know of any specific instances of H. fuscus breeding with other species, but I wouldn't put it past them.
Yes, you can mix species. They won't fight. But, they might kill each other. There have been quite a few instances (many actually) of one or both species falling ill and/or dying when different species are mixed together. Syngnathids have been shown to be asymptomatic carriers of potentially pathogenic bacteria, and it seems that different species (and different sources) can carry different bacterial strains. When the other species are exposed to the new bacterial strain, they don't have a resistance built up to it, and they fall ill. The issue is compounded when dealing with pipefish, since in most countries, pipefish are only wild caught (at least the flagfin types you are speaking of), and bring in with them parasite problems in addition to the bacterial problems.
Your chances of success will be significantly greater if you get all of the fish from the same breeder (so no pipes if you're in the U.S.) and if you keep your temperatures under 74 degrees, keep your tank pristine with perfect parameters, and understock your tank. I don't know your filtration scheme, but I would consider two pairs of seahorses in a 50 gallon as "understocked" and three pairs as "pushing the limit", and I probably wouldn't go with three pairs in that water volume when you are mixing species.
As for pipe fry, at least one person in Australia, and at least one person in Europe have raised the flagfin pipefish fry, but IIRC, they're using copepod nauplii... It would be incredibly difficult, but obviously isn't "impossible".