Pipe fish in Reefs

[nauticac4]

I have seen a few reefs with pipe fish. I am wondering if I can put a pair in my 120 gallon reef. The top of the tank is high flow but the bottom is pretty mellow (SPS up to LPS and soft stuff toward the bottom). The tank currently has 2 tangs 2 clowns a engineer goby and a lawnmower blenny. I have a good pod population and the parameters are stable. Is this something that I can do? I know species only tanks are the way to go but I would love to just have this one tank and I really want pipe fish.

 

[Pea-brain]

Some pipefish adapt very well to reef life. alligator pipe and bluestripe pipes do pretty well in high flow and have been known to feed on red bugs.

Dan

 

[nauticac4]

Further down the road I may give it a shot then. I tried to create a variety of zones in the tank to allow for various marine life. So I may give it a shot

 

[Bidadari]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10550266#post10550266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pea-brain
Some pipefish adapt very well to reef life. alligator pipe and bluestripe pipes do pretty well in high flow and have been known to feed on red bugs.

Dan

Do you mean the dragonface pipe instead of the alligator pipe? I don't think the alligator pipe will do well at all in a reef tank with strong flow/current.

 

[Ralph ATL]

I have 2 dragon face doing well in mine

 

[Pea-brain]

yeah I meant dragonface pipe. I musta been outta it

Dan

 

[Canarygirl]

How is it to acclimate dragonface pipefish? The only place I can find that has them is online, so it will be my first shipment of fish to my door. Do you think they will make it? My local LFS say that they haven't been getting any in the past few months....

 

[Ralph ATL]

Canarygirl, your PM was full! Anyway................

Hey!
WOW! I'm impressed! You have a lot going on for someone in salt only 8 months or so! Awesome job! It took me 10-12 months to get a freakin' frag to live!

On a sidenote: Pictures aren't too hard as long as you have some parameters to start with. Just takes a lot of practice!

Well, let me know if you have any questions, and keep in contact if ya like! (it's always good to have as many reefers as you can!)


Gotta go! Goodnight!
Ralph

 

[Canarygirl]

Hi Ralph--

I guess I have kind of gone whole hog into this hobby. Lately it's been a struggle because I have been losing random coral colonies to TN, about half a dozen at this point over the last month. I can't figure it out but some folks think it is due to some alk fluctuations I've had over the past several weeks.

So I know what you mean...SPS keeping is seeming like one of the great mysteries of life to me at the moment.

I'll be in touch via PM I'm sure.

 

[nauticac4]

Well when the new order comes into the LFS I will be adding 2 pipefish to the reef. I am still debating on species, but have done some reading and beleive that the system can handle them. As a last resort I will place them in the fuge (plenty of food slow current) until I can tie a species only tank into the system.

 

[hatfielj]

I have a banded pipefish in my high flow sps tank and its been doing wonderfully for over 4-5 months now. However, I just added a tomato clown to host in my bta and the tomato clown has been harassing the poor pipefish. He bit off his fin on his tail I was very upset to find that. If the abuse continues I'm going to move the pipefish to the refugium until I have time to catch and get rid of the tomato clown.

 

[Canarygirl]

That's a real bummer. Is your pipefish freaked out? Is the clown still harrassing it?

I have a Clarkii clown that likes to chase smaller fish like my chromis and my baby clowns. He leaves all other fish alone, though. I'm kind of worried about how she will behave towards the pipefish I want to get...