first pipefish

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiefers 

okay... after a spat with the ich koodie bug, I let my tank sit for what feels like an eternity, and decided on something a little different. My lovely wife and I get the coral magazine and the latest issue was on the pipefish. After reading EVERYTHING.... I saw one at my fish guys place and took the chance. Draco, his name, looks like a Corythoichthys haematopterus, a yellowstreake. I have yet to see it eat put does pick at the rocks. I have fed the tank mysis on occation whe feeding the corals but have not seen him go at it. I say him due to the pink on it's nose, rather colorful. I also tried cyclops but as stated ealier have yet to see him eat. What else should I try? can I add another later or will there be problems with that?

 

Unless it has been trained to eat frozen, they eat only copepods...lots and lots of copepods. Do you have a refugium?

Try some baby brine shrimp to get it to feed, then when it is eating and accustomed to food coming in add some chopped mysis to the mix so it recognizes that as food also. Then start lowering the amount of the baby brine.

JMO

Quote:

Originally Posted by spanko 

Try some baby brine shrimp to get it to feed, then when it is eating and accustomed to food coming in add some chopped mysis to the mix so it recognizes that as food also. Then start lowering the amount of the baby brine.

 

JMO

Kiefers, this is good advice. Without a refugium to replenish your pods, the pipefish will deplete the pod population and then starve. So if you can train it to eat frozen it has a chance to survive. People do it all the time, but you need to get going to have it eating some frozen food before the pods are gone..
 

HEY....How about a picture!!!!

I agree with Spanko.  Live bbs should be a good starter.  You may also want to try live adult brine...a Corythoichthys pipefish has a fairly large snout, so should be able to handle this.  Either way, start mixing in mini-mysis or shaved large mysis slowly and see how he does.

I'm glad to see those articles have spawned some interest in pipes.  I still have a 20g planned for a trio of Corythoichthys intestinalis when the time comes.  I found a HOB fuge/skimmer from the 'Bay that was reasonable and should help the pod population, in case I have problems weaning them.

Pics!  Now!  Post 'em!

Raise your own. (you can get frozen baby brine but I don't know if they would go for it.) I think the sporadic movement of live is what triggers the feeding

"Here is an inexpensive, easy to make DIY Brine Shrimp Hatchery which can be constructed in less than 20 minutes. It utilizes one (or more) 2 liter plastic soda bottles, an air pump and 3/16" plastic air hose.

The true beauty of this design (other than the fact that is so cheap) is that it is so easy to use. The Brine Shrimp can be hatched out, then drained out (no more tedious siphoning) into a Brine Shrimp net, leaving the unhatched eggs and egg casings behind. The Brine Shrimp can then be rinsed and put into either another Brine Shrimp Hatchery for further growth, or stored for feeding to your livestock.

Here is schematic of what the DIY Brine Shrimp Hatchery looks like.

Items required:

• 1 or more 2 liter plastic soda bottles and caps.
• Air pump.
• 3/16" plastic air hose.
• 2" section of 3/16" rigid tubing.
• Drill motor.
• 3/16" drill.
• Silicone.
• Heavy duty string.
• 2 "S" hooks (can be made from a wire coat hanger).

1. Cut the bottom off of the soda bottle.
2. With the 3/16" drill, drill 4 holes, equally spaced around the bottle, 1" down (if the bottle is inverted) for the hanging strings.
3. Drill a 3/16" hole in the center of the bottle cap.
4. Insert the 2'' piece of 3/16" rigid tubing into the cap, so that it will be sticking into the bottle about 1". Silicone the rigid tubing in place.
5. Cut 2 equal length pieces of string (about 12" should be about right).
6. Tie one end of each piece of string through one hole and tie the other end to an "S" hook.
7. Insert one end of the 3/16" hose over the rigid tubing in the bottle cap and screw the cap on the bottle.
8. Insert the other end of the tubing over the air pump fitting.
9. Loop the strings over your horizontal hatchery hanger and insert the "S" hooks through a hole in the bottle on the other side, making sure that the air pump is above it.
10. Fill with saltwater to the waterline (see graphic, above).

You are now ready to start Hatching Brine Shrimp Eggs.

Lookin' good!!!

The name Draco = Serpent/Dragon. A fitting moniker indeed. I love the eyes!

OHHHHH I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Very nice!  You will get very attached, people don't believe it but pipes have a lot of personality.  I can tell mine apart with only the moonlights. 

I also think the bbs is a great idea, they absolutely love it!  They are amazing to watch hunt.  I have my dwarf seahorses and am already hatching brine twice daily so I don't mind their diet of bbs.  They also like to hunt small ghost shrimp, even those they can't fit in their snouts, lol. 

I have been feeding one group that is in with my erectus live mysis and they made the switch to frozen mysis very easily, they are pigs.  I wish the seahorses were that easy to convince!

I would suggest a few companions, they really are social fish and will form little "families".

From my own experience, I have never witnessed any hostility with pipes at all.  They just tend to form little groups that occupy their own spaces, my son calls them "pipe towns".  The groups don't interact a lot but do feed together.

I keep a few pipes in my dwarf seahorse tanks, they help to clean up the excess bbs.  I recently acquired a pair of wild erectus and they seemed really nervous until I put in the pipes.  The horses seem fascinated by their presence and often follow them around.

I do have a species only, planted pipe tank that I put in a trio of red banded gobies.  They are pretty neat little fish but are hard to find, at least here.

Any of the clown gobies or yellow watchmans would be good.  A friend I gave a few pair two houses hers with firefish, bar gobies, and scissortail gobies as she wanted some "presence" in the water column and all those fish are pretty mild mannered.

I wouldn't recommend mixing them with horses but from my experience, the pipes are much more adept feeders than horses.