pipefish care

[bimini_bread]

Hello,

I'm going to try to keep some pipefish for a research project and while I've kept lots of fish over the years I know how tricky pipefish can be. These are wild caught gulf and dusky pipefish. Anyone have any tips on getting them feeding and food recommendations. I have a setup to raise copepods or Artemis although I know Artemis would have to be enriched. Just looking for thoughts from members who've been successful. Thanks

 

[shrimpgal]

I have gulfs and started them on adult brine enriched w dans feed and frozen hikari mysis
They are now switched over to frozen

 

[bimini_bread]

Hi Shrimpgal,

Thanks for the advice. We are feeding them brine now and they seem to be taking it. I'll have to look to see what we are enriching the brine with.

 

[rssjsb]

Try mysis. Also, nutramar ova if you can find it.

 

[bimini_bread]

Try mysis. Also, nutramar ova if you can find it.

Thanks rssjsb! I'll definitely look into nutramar ova.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

But for perfect health and feeding, build PaulB's feeder. Don't take a chance on your wild pipes not eating frozen. PaulB calls it his Mandarin feeder, but it works great for Pipefish too.

 

[kylemm]

Try mysis. Also, nutramar ova if you can find it.

I've also heard success with this feeding regiment

 

[MondoBongo]

i've got a blue stripe in my QT right now.

he's been smei-interested in Nutramar Ove and frozen Cyclop-eeze. soaking the food in selcon seems to pique a bit more interest in him, and most of my other, fish.

i also loaded up on several softball sized wads of various macro algae to help buffer my pod population, and some chunks of live rock. my QT is fully cycled and has been up for almost two years at this point, so it has some of its own fauna.

i also culture phyto plankton and copepods for dosing to all my tanks. the brine shrimp i feed are freshly hatched, within 24 hours of hatch, still with yolk sac attached.

i haven't tried him on anything else yet, but am planning on giving PE-Myses a shot soon. although being a blue stripe, he is pretty tiny, so i'm not sure how interested he will be in those.

 

[vlangel]

i've got a blue stripe in my QT right now.

he's been smei-interested in Nutramar Ove and frozen Cyclop-eeze. soaking the food in selcon seems to pique a bit more interest in him, and most of my other, fish.

i also loaded up on several softball sized wads of various macro algae to help buffer my pod population, and some chunks of live rock. my QT is fully cycled and has been up for almost two years at this point, so it has some of its own fauna.

i also culture phyto plankton and copepods for dosing to all my tanks. the brine shrimp i feed are freshly hatched, within 24 hours of hatch, still with yolk sac attached.

i haven't tried him on anything else yet, but am planning on giving PE-Myses a shot soon. although being a blue stripe, he is pretty tiny, so i'm not sure how interested he will be in those.

Try Hikari as it is smaller intact mysis. It was the first intact mysis I fed to my juvenile seahorses. Before that I had to shave or chop it.

 

[rayjay]

PE mysis, IME, are very large shrimp that small mouth feeders don't go for.

 

[rlpardue]

I found some Dutch lobster eggs if you can't find any Ova.

 

[RAreef]

Anyone have ideas the easiest pipe fish to have in a 40 gallon breeder tank and tank mates... There are many opinions however I would like to hear from anyone with experience if possible.

 

[vlangel]

I have these 2 banded flag fin pipefish from Ocean Rider. They eat frozen mysis and I think they would do well with calm captive bred fish.

 

[rssjsb]

Anyone have ideas the easiest pipe fish to have in a 40 gallon breeder tank and tank mates... There are many opinions however I would like to hear from anyone with experience if possible.

Bluestripes are the easiest in terms of being able to do well in smaller tanks. They're not as easy to get eating frozen. My blue stripes eventually took mysis, but it took them a couple of years. Jannsi are quicker to eat frozen foods. Both require a mature tank even if they will eat frozen because it's just a supplement to their natural diets.

As to tank mates, you should avoid anything aggressive and especially avoid fish that will compete for pods - many (most) types of wrasse, including six lines, possums, probably others. Clown gobies, rainsford/jester gobies, dragonets. You get the picture.

 

[Andrew D]

But for perfect health and feeding, build PaulB's feeder. Don't take a chance on your wild pipes not eating frozen. PaulB calls it his Mandarin feeder, but it works great for Pipefish too.

Can someone please link me to a thread that contains this feeder? Thanks in advance. Andrew

 

[rayjay]

Paul's Auto brine shrimp hatchery and feeder
His earlier feeder that he used to manufacture and sell was basically a box frame covered in screen that the mandarins could suck the adult brine shrimp through.
Can't find a pic of it just now though.
Here's another one: they-all-love-feeder

 

[Andrew D]

thanks.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

Can these guys handle a higher flow SPS tank?

 

[ThRoewer]

Bluestripes are the easiest in terms of being able to do well in smaller tanks. They're not as easy to get eating frozen. My blue stripes eventually took mysis, but it took them a couple of years. Jannsi are quicker to eat frozen foods. Both require a mature tank even if they will eat frozen because it's just a supplement to their natural diets.

As to tank mates, you should avoid anything aggressive and especially avoid fish that will compete for pods - many (most) types of wrasse, including six lines, possums, probably others. Clown gobies, rainsford/jester gobies, dragonets. You get the picture.

In the past I never had any issues to get my blue stripes to eat frozen foods - they usually picked that up pretty quickly and competed very successfully with my other fish.
live But the male I have right now (the female died due to a snout defect caused by an infection) only takes live foods. I tried frozen brine shrimp but while he will take alive adults he doesn't take frozen ones. Frozen Mysis isn't even looked at so far (my clowns and mandarins don't like them either).
I just transferred him into my 18" cube and hope he will learn to take frozen foods there. If not, he has to find a way to catch the exceptionally quick and mostly night active life Mysis that populate all my rocks and gravel.

As for the original question - I would start a tigger pod culture. It may take a few weeks to get up to speed but should then provide enough pods as add on food.
I set up a 99 liter Sterilite container with saltwater, dosed it with miracle grow, inoculated it with Nanochloropsis and a bottle of california tigger pods and let it sit on the balcony with only a air stone. It now yields one to two good feedings a day.

Another good and easy to culture life food are daphnia. They will live long enough in saltwater and even my blue stripe gulps them down.

Another easy to produce live food can be brine shrimp at various stages. I usually use decapsulated cysts and when they are hatched I transfer the nauplia to a shallow container (Container Store shoe boxes work well) and feed them with a mix of spirulina and yeast. Daily 100% water changes are tequired for the first two weeks to get them to grow quickly. After you have adult brine shrimp you can reduce the water changes to once a week. Always feed the brine shrimp before feeding them to your fish.

 

[ThRoewer]

Can these guys handle a higher flow SPS tank?

Blue stripes can.