Needle fish , reef aquarium .. Accidently adding

[Versus]

Shortly my tank is starting up and i will be adding copepods I collect locally .

I am not concerned about adding things which might be "bad" if I see an issue I will remove it. I do have one issue , on the larger things which are not copepods and I tend to accidently collect are small octo ( alot of the time I can see these and sea horses so I put them back ) but amongst the seaweed I ALWAYS see these guys.

This "collecting" is basically just the by product of when I cast net for bait fish and some seaweed grass in the net gets in there . Alot of the time it is left on the shore to dry out and die. So I will be taking it instead and putting the pods etc in my aquarium

Does anyone know where I can get more information on needle fish , (care , if they are ok for reef tanks etc )

 

[Superstretch18]

That looks like a pipefish. They are related to seahorses and are reef safe. Care is similar to seahorses and they typically require live foods (though in an aquarium, they can subsist if you have a healthy pod population). Not what I'd consider an "easy" fish to keep and much better off in a species aquarium or as tank mates for seahorses...

 

[Versus]

Do they get wrecked like sea horses do , from a fair amount of flow? ..

 

[Superstretch18]

They're usually better swimmers than seahorses, but not much. It also depends on the species and I couldn't tell you what species you have there.

Best bet is to post this or link this thread in the seahorse & pipefish forum and see if one of the experts there could shed some more light...

 

[Versus]

Thanks champ