Wierd Pipefish Behavior

[Paul B]

I find this very odd. I have a breeding pair of bluestripe pipefish for 4 or 5 years and there is no problem with them.
A month ago I added a pair of Janss Pipefish which are also doing fine. But yesterday I noticed my male pipefish is losing his tail and it is just ribs. He seems healthy otherwise, hunts and all but I have been noticing he is not hanging out with his mate much.

This morning I found out why.
One of the Janss pipefish, I assume the male chases the male blue stripe when ever he comes out to eat. The Janss pipefish will dart after him like a javelin from across the tank and chase him into the corner. I never noticed this before with two very different types of pipefish.
You can see the Janss here.


And the bluestripes.

 

[eatbreakfast]

They are closely related species. Closely related species can often be more aggressive to each other, due to having similar needs, so are competitors for resources.

 

[Paul B]

I am surprised they know they are closely related. Janss pipefish are 3 times larger and a completely different color. They look like very distant cousins. :D

 

[kdc]

I’m late coming to this thread, but how did you resolve this problem?

 

[Paul B]

It was easy, he bit him again and my male bluestripe disappeared. The Janss killed him.

Yesterday I was feeding my fish some mysis and clam and the bluestripe grabbed a mysis that was to big for him to swallow. The copperband tried to steal it and had the entire bluestripe face in his mouth. He let him go and all he has is a deviated septum. Today he is all better.

 

[tjdouglas]

I have found that Jans' pipefish can be pretty aggressive in my tank and they don't think they play well with other pipefish :(