Red Flame Pipefish

[bluetang<3]

A lfs in the area contacted me regarding H. Penicillus. They brought some in and the store owner says he has turned away a lot of potential buyers as no one has a proper set up for these guys. So he approached me, I cant seem to find much info on these guys on the internet. The only set up i have that they could go into would be with my seahorses but I would be a little leery with that. Can seahorses and pipes be kept together? The set up is a 50 gallon with 4 h. redi that are around 3 years old. I realize they would compete for food, but i thought i read some where on bacterial issues or something along those lines.

Thanks

 

[Bluemon]

The pipe sounds like its WC, and being a fellow sygnathid, it will very likely pass off pathogens off the seahorse and makes it ill.

this is slightly better if you reidi is also WC and came from the same area.

but overall not recommended

 

[rayjay]

I agree!
As almost all pipe fish are wild caught, they have a very poor track record being kept with seahorses with one species or both being wiped out many times.

 

[TamiW]

Do you mean: Dunckerocampus pessuliferus? I know of no H. Penicillus. If it is D. pessuliferus, then chances are your fish store is turning away people that can take care of it. They do great in reef tanks as long as there are no anemones or other corals with a harsh sting.

 

[nicewicz]

Or do you mean Dunckerocampus baldwini? I have had a pair of H. Erectus for nearly 10 months now and they are gorgeous! A few months (3-4) back, I purchased a pair of wild caught Dunckerocampus baldwini. All are doing fantastic right now. The Dunckerocampus baldwini were eating frozen PE mysis from the start. I wouldn't take them unless I saw them being fed and that they ate. Mine are voracious eaters, but don't threaten my horses.
I run UV 24/7, so I'm not certain if that is how I managed to avoid disease. Here is a link to my system:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2042584
I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

 

[ann83]

Fishbase lists an H. penicillus. You might want to check to make sure that photos actually match what the LFS has, though. Seems to be a mostly brackish pipefish, found in both freshwater and marine as well. I would definitely do a separate setup from the seahorses.

 

[bluetang<3]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I am going to pass on them, I am not 100 percent on the genus as this is all I was told by the store I have yet to see them.