Possible to have pipe fish in tank?

[kellon16]

I have a 220 reef tank. I have 2 vortecs and 2 tunze 6108s. I know your not supposed to keep open power heads with se horses but what about pipe fish? is it possible to keep them in a tank like this?

 

[namxas]

flagfin pipes (genus Doryhamphus) do fine in a reef tank, but i'd figure out a way to put a guard on anything they can stick their heads into. i lost a male D. janssi to a pump intake.

 

[kellon16]

oh nice thanks. what about lps? or anemones? i doesn't effect them like sea horses?

 

[namxas]

flagfins don't perch or hitch. they're quite good swimmers. i never had any trouble with any LPS or even a large tube 'nem.

what was pretty cool was the fact that my Janss' set up a cleaning station, and would use an odd vertical "see-saw" swimming motion to advertise. when the fish in the tank saw this, they'd line up to be groomed. this is more common in younger fish, but my adults did it as well.

 

[kellon16]

alright thanks. How would you cover up your power heads? stack rocks around them?

 

[namxas]

lots of folks fashion a fish guard out of the "plastic canvas" used for needlepoint. it comes in sheets and has various hole sizes. you can usually find it at craft stores. you could stack rocks around them as well, but if you did a good enuff job to keep the pipes out, you might not get much flow. IME, flagfins spend a lot of time swimming in and out of the rockwork.

 

[Eric the half-bee]

My pair of Jannss' do well in my 400 gal. They stay in the rockwork and come out not often. Nobody in the tank bothers them and I have had triggers at one point. For circulation, I have 4 tunzes producing pretty vigorous flow.