What the Heck!?!?!?!

[rackyrane]

Well, my 8 year old has the salt water bug as bad as my husband and I do. The poor kid didn't have a chance with all the tanks around.
Well, my husband built a nano for him and he wanted a pipefish. He received his Caribbean pipefish about 10 days ago.
We started seeing these funny little things in there that looked like some kind of pod. We got out the trusty magnifying glass and we have 8 baby pipefish!
I guess our new pet was pregnant (or not since he's male).
We had no clue the little guy was expecting. Now we are trying to hatch nauplii real quick.
Anybody else have baby pipes and/or know what else to feed them? Not much info available online for these little guys. We don't have quick access to rotifers. Thankfully, the tank is chock full of pods and we see the little guys hunting (and eating) them. Is this sufficient or what should we do? Any good sites on care of pipes/baby pipes?
Thanks guys!

 

[seattle]

Wow congradulate ur son,probley some of the 1st tank bred pipefish on earth.

Looks like your going to have a stocked tank soon

 

[flpriest]

That is really cool!! Hopefully you's will be able to raise them up and train them to eat frozen... Pipefis info is extremly hard to come by. If you do run across a site or good info, please post!!! Again congrats on the baby Pipefish!

 

[poniegirl]

Originally Posted by Rackyrane
Well, my 8 year old has the salt water bug as bad as my husband and I do. The poor kid didn't have a chance with all the tanks around.
Well, my husband built a nano for him and he wanted a pipefish. He received his Caribbean pipefish about 10 days ago.
We started seeing these funny little things in there that looked like some kind of pod. We got out the trusty magnifying glass and we have 8 baby pipefish!
I guess our new pet was pregnant (or not since he's male).
We had no clue the little guy was expecting. Now we are trying to hatch nauplii real quick.
Anybody else have baby pipes and/or know what else to feed them? Not much info available online for these little guys. We don't have quick access to rotifers. Thankfully, the tank is chock full of pods and we see the little guys hunting (and eating) them. Is this sufficient or what should we do? Any good sites on care of pipes/baby pipes?
Thanks guys!
WOW! That is amazing!
A great thing that your tank has a natural food source, but I would also say you should try two things:
1) Buy some frozen enriched BABY brine. Thaw it and even go so far as to "chop" it up. Add very small amounts to help train to frozen. As those baby pipes grow, increase the size of the bits and begin to mix in bits of mysis.
2) If you can, hatch brine and feed live within 24 to 48 hours of the brine's hatching. After that they lose their nutritional value.
It's a patience I don't know if I would have, myself. I wish you every bit of great fortune.
And post photos, if you can!

 

[freejury]

Congrats on the babies & best of luck. I've been raising ponies for the past year. Baby brine is the best way to go for small, easily caught food. And the pod population will help a great deal. As they grow, they will need rotifers as the next "step up". Be very careful of the water quality, as it degrades very quickly with the baby brine. I would suggest feeding three to four times a day. If you make it past 45 days, you should be home free! Keep us all posted.

 

[rackyrane]

Thanks everyone. I am going to try all of the suggestions. I will see if we can get pictures--the little guys are small. It's so cool watching them hunt.
Will keep you posted. So far, so good. There are no other inhabitants in the tank except some snails and a couple hermits (who might get put out if any babies disappear).

 

[rackyrane]

Update:
We e-ordered the rotifers and the little guys love them. They are getting pretty big--about 1" now for most.
We only have 3 left now . Four seemed to disappear, one jumped into the overflow while my DH was doing tank clean up. We put him back in the tank, but I guess the little guy was too banged up to make it.
We are in the process of moving them to their own little five gallon nano. Will post pics when that is done.

 

[flpriest]

Can't wait for some pics of the lil guys!!

 

[rackyrane]

No pics yet, it is hard to see them in the red algae they live in. They blend right in.
We only have about 4 left now. The others didn't make it. One of them went into the overflow and didn't survive the turbulence. Not sure what happened to the other three. I suspect the devil hermit crabs had lunch.
The guys still in there are doing well. They are about 1 1/2 inches now. They eat like little tigers.
Am trying to get pics, but they don't come out of the algae much. They are little ambush hunters. Boy, are they fun to watch!