Id

[skiper gre]

Hi there, just picked these guys up as a LFS. Not sure what they are. Any information would be appreciated. What do they eat?

 

[yosemite sam]

They are probably something you should take back. They are banded pipefish, which are incredibly difficult to take care of. Pipefish are relatives of seahorses, and need to live in similar conditions, ie a well established tank with TONS of pods and other live food, and without other fish. They are slow swimmers, and get easily harrased. What kind of tank do you have them in? What other tank mates? I'm not trying to flame you, but please research before you buy things, these are not fish to be kept by the average person.

 

[rubberduck]

yep they basicaly need a specialty tank to themselfs and need LIVE food which can be a major pain

 

[skiper gre]

GREAT!!!! ƒ¼ Thanks for the information, I have a 125G reef tank with lots of live rock, about 200 pounds. The tank was set up just before x-mass so all most 4-months. There is a live sand bed about 2-1/2 or 3 inches (Florida live sand) tank mates 2 skunk clowns, 2 true perks ( yes they do get along) 2 chromes, 1 yellow goby, a lawnmower goby, 1 neon dotty back. Three PJ cardinals, 2 peach colored anthieas. And a purple tang.
So from this feed back it looks like I just wasted fifty bucks and am going to kill tow cool fish. I don¡¦t have a refuge system and am sure the other fish are eating the pods as fast as they can produce.

 

[sweetreef]

as well they are slow swimmers like seahorses thus your fish you have in your tank will eat all the food before they can get enuff and they stress out with fast swimming fish are in with them...there better kept with seahorses and small gobys..

 

[bdhough]

A lesson to you to find out what you are getting before you actually buy it.
If you have to ask what it is after you get it then you should have never gotten it.
As a side note i would suggest not buying any fish for your tank for a month or at all. Let it develop some. You have 15 frikin fish already. While you do have a 125 your fish will grow. Let your tank mature for a while.

 

[xnikki118x]

If skiper's tank has enough filtration to remove the fish waste and keep the water quality good, then he/she is in good shape, IMO. Of course the fish will grow, but they can always be traded in or sold when they get too big for the tank.

 

[nm reef]

Very true that the fish in question may be very difficult to keep...and very true that it is a good idea to have information on identification and requirements prior to purchase....and it is also true that flames and negative comments toward members here is not appreciated or allowed.
Please refrain from flames...this one seems to be heating up a bit.