hello, I have a 29g that has been running for several months now and I would really like to add a pair of pipefish. I have a ocellaris clown and a orange lined cardinal in there now. Before I would add any pipefish I plan to turn the tank into a display refugium and wait until it has tons of pods and start adding BBS aswell. My main question is about the size of the tank and what species would be a smart choice. I have always liked the dragonfaced pipefish, but with them having smaller mouths and likeing to stay low on the substrate/rock I may not see them much if the tank has lots of prolifera/dragons breath/etc macro. I also like the yellow multibanded and banded pipefish. Any advice on species selection would be great, thanks.
pipefish help
- Thread starter txg8gxp
- Start date
BeanMachine
Active member
I had one of the australian banded pipefish in my reef for almost 2 years. They do prefer low flow however during feeding it would come out to the front and eat. I have read they don't live terribly long. Maybe someone else can confirm that.
He was hardy, hunted all over in the evenings, and loved mysis.
He was hardy, hunted all over in the evenings, and loved mysis.
TamiW
Seahorse Wrangler
First, be aware that in a tank that size, it's unlikely that a refugium will produce enough to feed any pipefish. Unless you're planning on a refugium several times larger than the tank itself.
Flagtail pipefish would probably be the most appropriate for your setup, and they are usually pretty easy to convince to eat frozen. The yellow multibandeds don't seem to do well for a lot of people; I'm not sure why though. They'll often seem to do well only to drop dead a few weeks or months later.
Blue striped pipefish are probably the hardiest, but if you want to get more than one, you'll have to get a male/female pair. They can be tricky to sex, the males have little spikes on their snouts that are hard to see, especially since they tend to move pretty fast. Females can also have small bumps, but if you see them side by side, the difference is glaring.
I've heard people have a lot of luck with janss as well. Banded pipefish seem to be a mixed bag.
Flagtail pipefish would probably be the most appropriate for your setup, and they are usually pretty easy to convince to eat frozen. The yellow multibandeds don't seem to do well for a lot of people; I'm not sure why though. They'll often seem to do well only to drop dead a few weeks or months later.
Blue striped pipefish are probably the hardiest, but if you want to get more than one, you'll have to get a male/female pair. They can be tricky to sex, the males have little spikes on their snouts that are hard to see, especially since they tend to move pretty fast. Females can also have small bumps, but if you see them side by side, the difference is glaring.
I've heard people have a lot of luck with janss as well. Banded pipefish seem to be a mixed bag.
TamiW
Seahorse Wrangler
I am doubtful that they don't live long. More than likely, some part of their care is unknown, like something missing from their diet, or a propensity to get sick. People used to believe the same thing about seahorses, but now that there are captive bred ones, people are beginning to have seahorses that are over 10 years old.
I don't think you did anything wrong, but I suspect we just don't know enough about them yet for true long term success in captivity.
Thanks for the advice, my refugium is only a 5g cryptic, but I plan to have the 29g display setup as a refugium to help breed pods/etc. I know this may not be able to easily support the diet of a pair of pipefish, but if need I could start breeding pods in another container to add more to the system once every week or two. If I did that and added enriched brine do you think I would be fine at keeping a pair well fed? If all went well I would work at pushing frozen food of course, I'm thinking nutramar ova, reef nutrition rotifeast and arctipods would be some good frozen food choices.
