pipefish care - new pictures added

[fishroomlady]

Hello All: I just ordered two dragonfaced pipefish and am very excited. For those of you that have kept these beautiful creatures long-term, I would love to hear your advice - especially in regards to feeding.

 

[Squishie89]

I had my pretty awesome LFS get mine onto nutramar ova. However nutramar is unavailable right now due to issues. Mine eat pods for the most part now. You need a pretty hefty population of pods for these guys as they graze all day long. They pretty much have the same requirements as mandarins.

 

[fishroomlady]

bump for me :)

 

[NanaReefer]

Considered a special needs fish due to their food requirements. Difficult to train on prepared foods, but not impossible. Should have a good source of Copepods available just in case. Otherwise, what Squishie said :)

 

[mfinn]

When I had my yellow multibanded pipefish, pods were a major source of food. I would buy tisbe pods about once a month. It also liked Mysis. I found that the Hikari brand mysis were smaller which seem to be better for a small fish. I bought the cube packs.

 

[fishroomlady]

just a couple of updated pictures

 

[fishroomlady]

bump - for pictures lol

 

[fishroomlady]

I'm shameless - another bump for pictures of the pipefish.....I really love these fish! :)

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

They are amazing fish. I'm debating getting some. :)

 

[fishroomlady]

so far, they have been eating pods and cyclops. I have also given them some baby brine and R.O.E. they definitely seem to be social with each other, they split up and then meet up throughout the evening. They also are way more active swimmers than I anticipated and handle flow very well. All of my other fish seemt to ignore them - my goby occasionally pops up and swims right near them. I love that one picture where his head is peaking up above the rock - looks like a miniature ostrich lol

 

[Squishie89]

Pipefish can defy gravity

 

[_sludgefactory]

I don't feed mine at all. It's feeds on the pods from my fuge. It's almost 7"now. Got it around 5" about 2 years ago.

 

[leebauer]

I got these 2 pipefish about a week ago. Added 2 bags of algagen pods, and have been mixing Larry's Reef Frenzy, and cyclopeeze. I'd rather overdo it at this point

 

[leebauer]

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Which pipefish are the easiest to keep? I've heard dragons aren't too bad, but I have no experience.

 

[fishroomlady]

I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer this. The reason I chose the dragon-faced is because they can seemingly handle a variety of flow and tank mates. In my researching, it seemed many people suggested that the blue-striped were hardier to keep. Paul B is an expert pipefish keeper, he's be a great resource to answer that question.

 

[footballdude2k3]

Pipefish are gorgeous, great pictures in here!

 

[Fish Art]

Have had a dragon faced pipefish for over two years in our 75 gal mixed reef. Besides eating whatever he finds, he also eats prime reef flake food.

 

[vlangel]

Fishroomlady, just stopping in to say Hi and how are the pipefish doing? Would love to hear an update and see a new pic!

 

[fishroomlady]

Oh, I just saw this. Hi to you vlangel! Pipefish are doing well - I tried to get a picture - they weren't together :(