what's the longest lived pipefish you've had?

[Ralph ATL]

it seems like a lot of individuals have a tough time keeping these fish alive, so what's the longest lived pipefish that you've had? What species? Tank & specs?

 

[philter4]

I don't know if this helps, but I have a trio of seahorses that I've had since '05 and a several prs of pipes that I have had since '06. The pipes I have are 2 prs and a single male or the Hawaiian red striped pipes and a pr of blue striped pipes. They are all still alive and the pipes breed regularly, but I have never been able to raise the juv past about 1/2 inch for the redstripes and never seen any juv bluestriped. I also don't have a way to seperate the young to try so they just have to survive in my reef which isn't easy for them to do.

 

[danfrith]

I've had my female bluestripe for 3+ years.

 

[Ralph ATL]

that's awesome! That's the most amount of time that I've heard (from hobbiest). Most have said from 1 week to 6 months. There is really very little info out there.

 

[HappySkittles]

there is all kinds of info out there
you just gotta keep looking

 

[Ralph ATL]

My pair of pipes will be 2 years old this October. I am not having a problem keeping them alive. I have noticed a lot of reefers posting on different sites (including this one) having trouble keeping them for more than 6 months. Compared to Acropora, Tangs, Clownfish, and the like, there is not a lot of easily accessible info out there on pipefish that I have seen. I'm just trying to help a few people out that are struggling to keep them, but I would like a more complete perspective. I am also just plain curious how many people are trying to keep pipes, and their success' and failures. Thanks so far!

 

[buffalobunch]

I have had my pair of Janss pipefish for 2 months now. I don't kow if they are male and female or just buds. I left them at the LFS for a month before I even considered bringing them home. I put them in the tank with my 4 seahorses. Since I have gorgonians in there and my seahorses have babies every 2 weeks I feed the tank bbs. I hoped that by putting bbs in the tank, that it would stimulate their appetite and make sure they were eating something. I also started putting cyclopeeze in with the bbs to get them to convert to frozen. I have seen one for sure eat the PE mysis I put in for the seahorses but haven't seen the other eat the frozen. So far so good.

 

[Ralph ATL]

there has to be more reefers keeping pipefish out there!?

 

[Ralph ATL]

bump

 

[Crued]

I've had a bluestripe for approximately 2 years. What's amazing is that I had a tank crash and let to go to heck, and neglected feeding, and it's still alive. I'm now setting up a new, smaller, more species specific tank because I feel like a butthead and it deserves better.

 

[danfrith]

Bluestripes are hardy little fish!

 

[cherie3001]

pipes

pipes

In your opinion what would be an ideal setup for a couple of banded pipes?My biggest problem would be the live food thing-Ive tried raising seahorse fry before and it just became too cumbersome to raise or find live food,

 

[Ralph ATL]

a big fuge and a mature tank with a lot of live rock.