Sustaining live food for dragonface pipefish

[ReeferGreg]

I'm planning on purchasing 2-3 dragonface pipefish for my 28g nanocube soon. The tank is absolutely CRAWLING with amphipods; even during the daylight hours you can see amphipods running around everywhere. It is also chock full of mini brittle stars as well.

The tank, which is very mature, is a 28g LED nanocube. Tank inhabitants include a yellow clown goby, trimma goby, porcelain crab, sexy shrimps, and NO hermits. I mostly feed nutramar ova, cyclop-eez, and coral frenzy.

What pods are the best food for Dragonface pipes? Assuming there was very little reproduction/sustainability of pods in my cube, approximately how often and how much would you suggest supplementing with a bottle of live copepods?

I'm currently considering using "ocean pods" 3-species mix.

www.livecopepods.com

 

[TamiW]

I wouldn't.

Here is the deal with copepods. You've got them already, and if you don't, then its because your tank can't support them. If you don't have them in large numbers, your tank can't support large numbers.

You won't be able to supplement enough to keep a dragonface, let alone 2 or 3 in a 28 gallon aquarium. You won't be able to culture enough to keep them feed unless you dedicate a large amount of space just to live food culturing. You could try baby brine shrimp, but last I heard, that wasn't well accepted by dragonface pipefish.

A much better pipefish for your setup would be flagtail pipefish. They tend to adapt well to captivity and learn to eat frozen pretty readily.

 

[gem]

I have a flagfin as well as a dragonface pipe in my 33 gal. My tank has plenty of pods already, but I have a local source that cultures several species of pods. I purchase a bottle of several hundred from here now and then and add them to the tank. It's seemed to work out quite well so far, but I've only had the dragon for a little over a week now, so I guess we'll see.
I wasn't aware, when I purchased the dragon, they were so hard to keep. The store had him for a few weeks prior to my purchase. I had several people recommend dragons to me, which is why I purchased this one. Lesson learned though. Should have read up. Now that I have found this forum as well as other sources, I will read more on the exact species prior to obtaining it.

Regarding the constant stocking of live pods for them, culturing yourself might be the least expensive option, but from seeing my friend's set up for culturing.......it is time consuming as well as taking up a lot of room. And you'll need lots of rotifers to feed the pods. Hence why I let her do all the work and just buy from her.

 

[gem]

I wouldn't.


A much better pipefish for your setup would be flagtail pipefish. They tend to adapt well to captivity and learn to eat frozen pretty readily.

fishgrrl- I have yet to see my flagfin go anywhere near frozen. He runs from whatever is floating. He - not the dragon - is the reason I started buying and re-stocking the live pods.

 

[TamiW]

fishgrrl- I have yet to see my flagfin go anywhere near frozen. He runs from whatever is floating. He - not the dragon - is the reason I started buying and re-stocking the live pods.

Gem, what kind of flag tail do you have? What frozen food have you offered. There is never a guarantee that any wildcaught syngnathid will take frozen, but most flagtails convert pretty readily, and are absolute piggies.