Acan eating my Dragon Pipefish

GHOST · Mar 13, 2009

Here are a couple pix of my Dragon Pipefish. I had a pair but one became lunch for my acan. I noticed one was not doing good & my acan happen to get lucky. Check it out

zoous · Mar 13, 2009

dang that sucks.

pakora · Mar 13, 2009

sucked the life out of it huh

euphoricgear · Mar 13, 2009

man i wanted to do an acan tank w pipefish.
what did u feed them?

cherokee_dude · Mar 13, 2009

That looks like a victim from one of the SG1 Atlantis episodes!

Supreme Reefs · Mar 13, 2009

dang i just lost mine too... it wasnt to an acan though... probably form starvation :(

mnherper · Mar 13, 2009

:cry_002:that to bad sorry for the loss.

Ladipyg · Mar 13, 2009

Most pipefish...like seahorses need a dedicated tank so they don't starve to death...a tank will very low current and lower lighting and lots of pods. The high flow needed in most reef tank means they can't find enough to eat for the amount of enery they expend. I kept both ponies and pipes for years in a 29 gallon tank that had a shrimp hatchery right in it...they would hang out and wait for the newly born brine shrimp to find their way out.
Sorry for your loss. I'm looking forward to the upgrade to my 120 gallon tank so my 65 gallon can become a pipe and pony dream tank again.

MikeB · Mar 13, 2009

I disagree. We have had a pair of mated pipefish in our tank for aver a year. HIGH Flow and a HIgh POD base. They are strong swimmers actually and do very well in the tank.

Ladipyg said:
Most pipefish...like seahorses need a dedicated tank so they don't starve to death...a tank will very low current and lower lighting and lots of pods. The high flow needed in most reef tank means they can't find enough to eat for the amount of enery they expend. I kept both ponies and pipes for years in a 29 gallon tank that had a shrimp hatchery right in it...they would hang out and wait for the newly born brine shrimp to find their way out.
Sorry for your loss. I'm looking forward to the upgrade to my 120 gallon tank so my 65 gallon can become a pipe and pony dream tank again.

Ladipyg · Mar 13, 2009

Well, the high pod population helps...I'm saying that if you don't have a very high pod population, the amount of energy they expend for the effort is a losing battle. I have kept pipefish over 3 years successfully in a low flow tank.
Are they out in the open fighting the current..or do they tend to find a "quieter" area of the tank to hang out in? Just wondering.

er1c.the.reefer · Mar 16, 2009

Browns said:
I disagree. We have had a pair of mated pipefish in our tank for aver a year. HIGH Flow and a HIgh POD base. They are strong swimmers actually and do very well in the tank.

agreed. i had mine for 1.5 years and still going strong.

TyreeUM · Mar 16, 2009

its amazing how strong they can swim, I worked on an oyster farm when I was in school back in maine, we grew oysters on the floor of a river with incredible current and there were pipe fish all over the place

freshfish · Mar 16, 2009

That sucks man

Reef Empire · Mar 18, 2009

We have had a dragonface pipefish in our SPS display (VERY high flow) for a few months now, and it is often seen swimming in some of the highest flow areas in the tank, including right in front of the returns, with ease. It was recently observed accepting frozen cyclops/rotifers too!

GHOST · Mar 18, 2009

There great swimmers indeed I think I picked an unhealthy one. I have the Reeflo Dart 3600gph for a loop system & they have no problem getting around. I got a pair now & one I had for over 8 months. Just got to have them.