Sexing Pipefish?

[Jameses]

Hello!

I have been keeping salt tanks for a over a year now. I had an anemone nuke my reef right at the 10 month mark, so I've downgraded to a nano seahorse/pipefish setup.

I had issues with fluctuations in the tank (to be honest I think it was a bad test kit, there was nothing in the tank but two blueleg hermits, I wasn't feeding them and the ammonia read 8ppm.) I do frequent water changes now and the tank is doing well despite what the kit reads.

I added a bluestripe pipefish in the hopes of the levels balancing, and also for copepod control (the tank was so full of them I could barely see through it!). This fish has become one of my new favorite fish and I would like to breed them along with dwarf seahorses.

Is there a way for me to sex this one? It was in the tank with a smaller pipefish, but the smaller one wasn't as healthy. Since it was larger, I assume mine might be a male?

Can anyone tell from pics?

https://imgur.com/gallery/QejUd

 

[Jonvo324]

It's a bit hard to tell from your picture.

However to sex flagtail pipefish, like the blue stripe pipefish, check their snout. Males will have ridges or bumps along their snouts, while females have no bumps and will have a smooth snouts. Also, males tend to have flatter underbelly since they hold the eggs under their bellies. And females will typically have a rounder appearance, compared to males.

Thats how I got a pair of mine.