pipefish care

ok so ive been looking at seahorse.org and havent found much on pipefish. i am wanting to make my 55 gallon a home for a mated pair of pipefish. the only prob is that im having trouble finding a lot of care instructions for them. does anyone have any sites or first hand knowledge or expirience with these fish? thanks

 

More to Pipes than just PVC: The Genus Doryrhamphus, and other Pipefish Paracanthurus hepatus by Henry C. Schultz III - Reefkeeping.com

http://seahorsesanctuary.com.au/care-information/pipefish-care/

 

Look at what Live Aquia has to say. They carry a few different pipefish..

Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums

The one above, from RK magazine is a good source with lots of info too.

Pipefish are pretty sweet. I wish I had enough tank space to care for a few.

 

hhhhmmm thank you both very much. it looks like ill have to get sme copepods and let the tank sit for a while. im gonna get the copepods john has at reef cleaners. i have a one gallon aquarium i could use to breed them, but hows hould i go about keeping them alive in the 55 gallon untili getthe pipefish??

 

Will this be a reef or a species only tank?

This was my fav species.... the Janss.



I've kept a kazillion gulf pipefish when I lived in Texas. I've never had trouble converting either of them to frozen foods.

 

species only. with maybe a mandarin down the road. do you have any tips?

 

Hey Gexx, what happened to your aggressive tank? Still planning for that?

 

i cant stick to one plan :/ im having a lot of trouble deciding on what to do with this tank. i keep going back and forth on what to do with it.

 

pipefish require alot of pods like just as many as a mandarin and if you want two pipefish i would definatley prepare for it like your having two mandarins.

 

If you get them onto frozen, pods are not required. If you rely solely on pods, you will run out in a nanosecond. You have to concentrate on training them.

The Janss was easy, gulf pipes were easy... dog faces were a little more difficult and the all the banded and multibanded were harder. The bluestripe is a mean little pipe that doesn't play well with his friends. I would leave him out of the equation all together.

I don't know about the micrognathus crinitus, I've never seen one. The guy may have ID'd them incorrectly. If not... cool find and pictures are a must. But I have no idea how hard they are to train.

You honestly won't be able to raise BS to adults as a staple for it's diet. The supply will not be plentiful enough unless you go into a BIG production. You can buy that at the LFS here and a few places online. I would go that route. Hatching your own baby BBS is feasible, albeit not a diet to rely on forever. You can either feed them out when they first hatch and are nutritionally sound or wait a few days until they get bigger and enrich them with whatever you want.

My pipes loved to pick the eggs off the underside of berried shrimp. If you see some ghosties around that are carrying, it's always a nice treat.