Pipefish Experiences...Let's discuss the state of the art.

[MCCOOL]

Haha, no one should fear posting pics after my butchered attempt.

initially, I was slow dripping live brine into my tank with a restricted aqualifter pump for about 12 hours a day. Once it started taking to the cyclops, I just switch from my canister filter to a small powerhead for circulation for about 4 hours and let the cyclops circulate. After the 4 hours, I plug the canister filter back in to clean up the remaining food. I'm doing this twice a day at this point.

 

[small alien]

Thanks.

 

[Elysia]

I have kept a few pipes.

I feel that getting a healthy pipe from the start is the most important thing that you can do. I had success with a bluestripe and two bandeds. I also had failure with a banded and a dragon face. I was very upset about the dragon face because it appeared to be so healthy when I purchased it. In the end, I am not certain what caused my failure w/ the df. I think the unsuccessful banded, although it ate in my care, sucumbed because it had been starved at either the wholesellers or the retailers -- that it was "the swimming dead," if you will, before I ever got it.

My banded pair and my bluestripe, both were relatively easy to get onto frozen food (much easier than, say, a wild caught seahorse.) I used frozen freshwater copepods as my transitioning food, as cyclopeeze did not seem to work. Usually, the movement of the frozen pods in the water column was all that was necessary to get them to feed; I think I bought a bottle of pods for each to help with the transition.

I really loved my bluestripe. She was a great fish (females have snout bumps, but they are usually smaller and clear -- maybe they grow with age?) She was in a small tank (24 gallons) with a lot of rock and macro, but as much as I sat in front of that tank, I never went more than a minute without seeing her buzzing in and out of the rocks, looking for little morsels to snick. Bluestripes are a fish that I would pick up every time I saw a healthy one (which is regretably few and far between.) I know of a LFS that had one for some time, and then finally got a female and for a while the pair spawned liked clock work, despite the tank set up being less than ideal.

My bandeds were also great fish, and very visible. I had them for 6 or 9 months, until something brought an illness into the tank. At the same time, the coral beauty decided to go after them. I caught them and put them into an issolation tank and tried to discern what was wrong with them, but they both succumbed within a month. The whole family was sad about it. Since then, I haven't found any that I think are healthy to try again, but I would. I have learned some things since that time and believe that I could be a better owner to them.

Anyone keep alligator pipes? Gulf pipes? Pugnose pipes?

 

[small alien]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Elysia!

Here's a little vid of my banded.

<object style="height: 344px; width: 425px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/csd2CQUoVxM?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/csd2CQUoVxM?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></object>

 

[small alien]

Banded Pipefish: Doryrhamphus dactylophorus

Banded Pipefish: Doryrhamphus dactylophorus

I've had 3 of these and one lived past the 3 month mark and I still have it today.

For the story of my first one, check out this thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1741640

About 6 months ago, I acquired two more. From their behavior in the store tank, they were at least pals if not m/f.

Got them home. Acclimated them and put them into an established 10 gallon QT with live sand and live rock. Immediately began feeding mysis, prawn roe and cyclopeeze. Somewhat amazingly to me given the size of their mouths, one of the pipes began eating the mysis right away. Just "chomp!" like a little alligator. I was pretty thrilled about that. The feeding response was very strong. The other, however, seemed uninterested. Because of the lack of a stomach and a body type that precludes observation of weight loss, I figured I had to act pretty fast. Because I felt I had a m/f pair, I was extra interested in getting them both to make it. I determined to move them both into the main reef to give the lagging fish a chance at a native copepod population.

They survived together in the 75 gallon reef tank for about 2 months when one of them unexpectedly died. I assumed it was the one that didn't eat. But when I fed mysis to the tank with the survivor, no response. It seemed the non-feeder had survived.

In the last several weeks, probably some 5 months after introduction to the reef tank, the pipe has begun eating cyclopeeze and prawn roe. No mysis yet. But the feeding response is pretty strong. I'm very optimistic for the long term survival of this awesome fish. I've had it captive for 5-6 months.

Cheers.:bounce3:

 

[mak3mydae]

Sorry for the super noob question, But it's ok to keep more than a pair, right?

 

[small alien]

That seems like a perfectly reasonable question. I have kept multiple types together with no issues. They are super peaceful. Only issue I ever read about is two male bluestripes. That, apparently, is a no go, period. I had the banded and multiband together. I had two dragonface together. And I have a banded and dragonface together. I have no idea the sex of any of them. Always completely peaceful. I remember when I added the multiband to the tank with the banded and they saw each other and approached and started bending around each other in the absolutely coolest way, checking each other out. A special fishy moment.

 

[April F]

My only experience with pipes is with an alligator pipe I currently have. I got him about 6 months ago. He was eating frozen adult brine at the LFS. Since coming here, he now also eats frozen mysis. I feed twice a day and had to trick him with the mysis, feeding it first when he was hungry, then a cube of brine to finish off the meal. (I call it a "him" but I really have no idea of gender. It just looks male...)
He has always eaten only out of the water column. He will not pick up anything that hits the ground/rocks/filters/etc. I do see him nosing about the rocks during the day, but feel certain his main diet is the frozen, prepared food.
I have attached a picture. He is really more bright yellow in real life, and about 9" long. He's very personable and knows to come to the suppertime bell (my tapping on the glass.) When I have my arm in the tank, I usually have to shoo him away. He's like a puppy, always underfoot.
I also have 4 firefish in the tank, 3 peppermint shrimp, and a lawnmower blenny, and he generally ignores everyone. He rarely wraps his tail around anything, altho most mornings I find him laying across a large colt coral, or with his tail stuck into the filter intake, in a vertical position while sleeping.
He's been a lot of fun. I was very concerned about getting him, since I had heard they were much harder to keep than seahorses, but he's obviously not normal, and is more the exception than the rule. I would love to find another exactly like him for company, but have been unable to so far.

 

[ReefNutPA]

I kept a few pair of dwarf pugnose pipes for quite awhile, back about 2-3 years ago. I posted pics of them, a few of the males when they were carrying eggs, and a few of the different broods of fry I had over that period. The pics are either on this site or the dedicated seahorse site - it's been awhile and I can't recall where I posted them.

Tom

 

[small alien]

Very cool pipe, April, thanks for sharing.

 

[MCCOOL]

Well today is day 14 with my yellow multi-banded pipe, it has made it out of the prazipro treatment without issue, and is about to start a round of Maracyn 2. It still will only eat the frozen cyclops and very small pieces of brine. I'd really like to get it eating larger food items, like mysis. Any suggestions on foods to try that are a little bigger than cyclops? I'd like to slowly increase the size of it's food. I tried cutting mysis into very small pieces, but it wasn't Interested.

It's weight seems to be steady, not losing or gaining. Although, I'm really not sure what a fat healthy pipefish is supposed to look like.

 

[small alien]

Try Nutramar Ova Prawn Roe.

Pics?

 

[MCCOOL]

here are a few attempts at clear pictures. I'm still trying to locate the nutramar product, nobody in my area has it.

 

[small alien]

Cool. Thanks for sharing. Multi-bands are soooo beautiful. I will try another if I ever see a healthy one.

Cheers.:wave:

 

[Paul B]

I have had bluestripes for many years, this one of a pair I have about 3 years. They spawn every two months or so and it is easy to tell the male has eggs.
I feed them and everything else in my reef new born brine shrimp every day but you can see them catch pods all the time. They generally like to stay in the rocks and they rub their snouts against the rock until they find a pod, then they suck it up. I find them to be the easiest, no maintenance fish.
I have found that I have to remove them if I am going to do a five year maintenance and stir the substrait up. They don't do well if the tank is all stirred up. Beside that, they are great.

 

[small alien]

Thanks for weighing in, Mr. B! I hope to have another bluestripe one day. They are awesome. What happens with the eggs? Do they hatch? Can you see the fry? Ever tried to raise the fry?

Cheers.