pipefish fry gift, now what?

[Kathy55g]

Hi,
I was just gifted with a bucket full of newly born pipefish fry. I have them in a warm water bath with some rotifers, nanno, and chetomorpha and an airline on low. HELP!

I keep reading about kreisels and flow and water exchange, and I am not sure what is necessary for pipefishes. Can you give me a clue? I am clueless.

They are large fry from a large pipefish. Green with sharp angles and thick as my pinkie finger. The fry are at least an inch long, and look like the could take bbs.

Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Kathy

 

[mwp]

1" fry? Heck yeah I think BBS would work (this coming from a guy with 0 experience on the particular subject at hand). Heck, try cyclopeze with the BBS!

Good luck Kathy!

MP

 

[Fishboy42]

Maybe bbs would be a good thing to try? Of course there are many species with different needs, and I've only raised the small gulf pipefish, but they were easily raised on bbs alone.

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

Matt, is a kreisel necessary?

 

[mwp]

BTW Kathy, kriesel wise Jason's air-driven one was easy to set up. 1 gallon fish bowl, air pump, 1/4" drill, 1/4" rigid airline tubing, silicone airline tubing, gang valve, some bridal veil and super glue to create a "port" on the side of the bowl for flow through and you're good to go and drop it in a 10 gallon with a heater!

FWIW, way back burried in the mandarin thread is a discussion on centripital force...it would seem that a BETTER location for any water exit would be along the rounded "ends" of the bowl rather than the flat sides of the bowl. I haven't tried making one designed like this yet, but I can say that when I "powered up" my flow through, with the water exiting at the center of the "swirling vortex of water", in short order all the stuff we wanted to concentrated was INDEED concentrated in the center of the bowl where it was then blown into the bridal veil and/or out into the tank. The air driven one didn't do this because the "flow through" was really more of just a place for some diffusion to occur between the kriesel and the aquarium outside.

Matt

 

[mwp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7698022#post7698022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
Matt, is a kreisel necessary?

I'd ask Jason on that one..I know he uses it for the seahorses but I think they're considerably smaller than 1" fry!!! 1" fry sound practically "Saleable size" to me!

MP

 

[Fishboy42]

I think a kreisel would only be necessary if the larvae are planktonic (of course I have no idea if your pipefish are or not!). The gulf pipefish were immediately benthic after hatching, so I never bothered with one.

 

[FMarini]

Kathy-
this pipefish sounds like what is called an alligator pipefish (Syngnathoides biaculeatus ). The fry should be fairly large, rotifers or enrich BBS nauplii to start, no need for a kriesel, unless you want to. But Yes clean water, a 5 gal grow out tank, and sponge filter

Make sure you check out http://www.syngnathid.org for more info

 

[mano]

Any pics yet Kathy?

I've raised a batch of alligator pipes (if that's what they are, sounds like it). I used just enriched brine and then cyclopeeze.

Good luck with them!

 

[mano]

Kathy,

Tried to send you a PM back but your box was full.

Christine

 

[Kathy55g]

should be clear now, thanks!

 

[Kathy55g]

Just counted them. About 24!

I moved them from the bucket to a dishpan sized plastic tub with an airbar along one side. In the bucket, they stayed in the corners, but with this setup they are mostly in the center, so that's a good thing.

They have a handful of chaeto to play with, but they seem to prefer to hitch to each other, then get ****ed off and have a tug of war to seperate. They have been hitching to renegade bits of chaeto, though.

I gave them some nannochloropsis and enriched rotifers twice today, but I can't tell if there are rots left. Tomorrow the decapped bbs should have hatched, and they can have a good big meal.

I just hope I can keep them alive! Poppa was kinda ugly compared to his brightly colored and banded relatives, but these babies are pretty cute! They seem to have taken on the bright green of the chaeto, but when I take a picture, there are other colors in there. I'll post some soon.

Thanks for the help, guys. I wouldn't even attempt raising these guys without the resources of the internet.

cheers,
K

 

[Kathy55g]

They snicked up some nhbs today, and are more active and entertaining today. All is good.

 

[spk]

Kathy,

Good luck and keep us updated please. Looking forward to some pics too.

Steve

 

[Kathy55g]

Had to go away for a couple of days and left my son in charge of feeding them. He forgot. They looked alright last night, but I found several dead this morning.

It is hard to say if they died from malnutrition, tangling in the cheato, or just gonna die anyway from unknown causes.

It looks like several of the dead ones may have gotten caught in the cheato, so I took that out, siphoned and did a 30% water change. The good ones look very good.

I'm going away again next weekend, so hopefully my fish sitter will feed them, and some will be alive on my return.