Pipefish in a reef tank?

[Bidadari]

Anyone has experience having pipefish in a reef tank? I know one of the concern is having them compete for food with other fish, but what if I only have less aggressive fish in the tank with the pipes. I'll train the pipe to eat frozen first of course before I put them in the main tank.
What about the high water flow? My tank is SPS dominated tank so I have tons of flow in there.
Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks.

 

[TamiW]

It depends on the pipefish, but many species do fine. A much bigger danger is stinging animals, not water flow. For instance, anemones and pipefish are a no no.

 

[pledosophy]

Pipes and SPS do well together IME. Pipes eat the red bugs.

 

[jkable]

I have 2 pipefish in my 100 gal reef. If you have pleanty of bugs they do great, mine also eat clypopeze.

 

[Bidadari]

I'm going to try this one day. So temting to put a few pipes in the tank. I have to sell my frogspawn first. That's the only stinging LPS in my tank, the others are SPS & a few other softies. Should I be worried about the pipes getting suck in by tunze? I have 2 tunze in my tank to keep my SPS happy.

 

[iglowce]

i just got a banded pipe this week.. i'll keep u updated wt how its doing in there =]

 

[ScallopKing]

I have two red/orange banded pipefish in my 180 SPS tank. No problems. I have two tunze 6100s and no issues. I also have a 10" sebae anemone swims around it all the time, no issues. I have a couple LPS no issues. I love these fish.

 

[Bidadari]

ScallopKing, that's good to hear. What other fish do you keep in the tank with the pipes? My guessing is to avoid fish that will compete for pods in the tank, like wrasses. Also how long have you had the pipes in your 180?

 

[Bidadari]

Bump for anyone to chime in more on their pipefish.

 

[frenchie]

starting a 29 gallon sps tank and was going to add a banded pipe fish but what other kind of fish will get along with pipe fish.

 

[ScallopKing]

I have the following fishies in my tank -

Pink tail trigger
Square male anthias
Sixline wrasse
Yellow tang
Orange fin tang
Sunburst anthias
Pair of false perculas
A bunch of other anthias

The pipe is never bothered by anyone, one of my fav fishes. I have had him for a few months now, I do feed mini-mysis for him.

 

[frenchie]

thanks for reply

 

[SptfireXIV]

How are they with conspecifics? Could 2 separate species successfully live in a 75?

 

[ScallopKing]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9514049#post9514049 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d.french
thanks for reply

No problem, here's a pic of the one I have.

 

[Bidadari]

What a beautiful fish! Do they eat frozen right away for you?
Do they swim out in the open most of the time? I've read that red banded pipes are the most outgoing compare to the other pipe species.

 

[LesMartin]

I've got a pair of flag tailed pipes in my 110 gall reef. They are in with two chrome wrasse, a H. crispa anemone, a C. Adhaevisum carpet anemone and finally a bubble tip anemone. Two Tunze 6000 Streams provide flow. The pipes spawn regularly so I guess they are doing alright !

 

[nYgel]

I want to buy 1 (would 2 be better? do they like to be in pairs?) banded pipefish for a 29g reef. .... i snuck the question in there.

 

[Bidadari]

Yes, pipefish do better in pairs so I've read.

 

[Blazer88]

I'm glad I ventured into this section of RC as I was thinking about getting two banded pipefish for my 65G reef. My LFS gets banded pipes in regularly and they say the pipes are accepting frozen food. I also have an RBTA in my tank (though at the very top) but I've heard from others with anemones the pipes will stay away. Hopefully I'll be posting a success story as well!