Very Small pipefish

[GinaD]

My LFS has a small pipefish, about 1 and 1/2" long. I asked them to put it on hold for me so I can ask this forum for advice. I REALLY like him and want to buy him, however, don't know much about them. The 1000 tigger pods (cope pods) I populated my QT tank with could feed him til I get more. I am not sure the exact species, I just know it isn't the same as the green pipefish they also have.

My questions are:
1: How many tigger pods will feed him/month?
2: Are they fairly easy to take care of other than their food? Are they very delicate/sensitive? I figure that as long as I keep buying tigger pods, and adding supplements, he should be fine until he gets bigger and can handle larger food, right?
3: How fast do they grow?
4: I don't want this to be an impulse buy, even though I didn't know I wanted him until I saw him (I know that is the definition of impulse buying, but I haven't bought him yet! )

Thanks for all your advice!!

 

[GinaD]

David (JustDavidP),
The one I am looking at looks a lot like the one you featured in one of your recent posts. What is your opinion of the size pipefish I'm looking at in my 10-gal qt tank?
Do you need more info on the tank first?
Thx.

 

[GinaD]

OK, not to sound impatient, but if by lunchtime tomorrow I haven't heard any 'Yays' or 'Nays' on this little guy, I just might get him anyway, but I'd rather have a second opinion before then...

 

[Greg Hiller]

Pipe fish often times need small live food. They will sometimes find enough in a tank with live rock to survive. Sometimes they will take, or can be trained to eat frozen food.

Without knowing the species of pipefish you have it's hard for me to help more. Do you know whether what you are considering is just a juvenile, or full grown? Alligator pipefish are green, but they get VERY big, almost the size of giant seahorses.

 

[GinaD]

I thought for sure a pipefish that small would have to be a jouvenile.

Here's a pic from David's post which resembles the one I'm looking at. Thanks Greg!!!!

 

[jAKE]

Gina,

I have a friend that keeps that species in his 20G reef. It seems to only grow to 2 1/2 inches in his tank and he has not been able to get it to eat anything but live foods. However he has had it 5 months in his reef and it has grown from 1 inch to 2 inches and seems to be finding enought to eat (He has a good sized refugium). Hope this helps.

 

[reefnroll]

Gina -

That pipefish is commonly called a Bluestripe pipefish, or Doryrhamphus excisus. I have 2 of those and they both now eat frozen foods, but it took quite a while to get them used to accepting frozen. During the many weeks before I noticed them accepting frozen, I didn't see them eating a single thing... but obviously they had to be snaking on something. They were in my refugium, packed with macroalgae and some live rock... so they apparently cruised the area for goodies. Mine are about 1.5" and 2"... and they seemed to last in my refugium with several other pod eating critters until they began taking frozen... but there is never a guarantee that they will ever eat anything but live foods. I had another not long ago that never did accept frozen, and died.

As Jake said, its a relatively small species, so it won't get larger than a few inches. If you've got a decent amount of rock or a lot of macro in the tank, it may do well enough with or without accepting frozen over time.

Good luck,

bec

 

[Bidadari]

Gina,
that's a blue stripe pipefish. I have mine in my seahorse tank. Mine doesn't eat frozen food at all until about 2 months ago. I have mine for about 9 months now. He was only eating live copepods for the whole 7 months or so, and he didn't have any competition for live food as well during this period of time.
You can ask the LFS to try to feed him frozen before you buy it, so at least you know what you're up against.

 

[agent6473]

I also picked up a pair of blue stripe pipes. Unfortunately I lost one, but one I still have. He eats frozen PE mysis like crazy. This is the only pipe that I've gotten to eat frozen so far. Took him a couple of weeks to do it though. Unfortunatelly the other didn't eat like him. He is in a seahorse tank 20Xhigh with lots of macro algae and porous rock which I hope grows lots of pods as well, but he comes right out for feeding time each night now anyways.

 

[Greg Hiller]

GinaD,

You got some great info above. I think you now see the value of identifying the species in getting you good info.

 

[GinaD]

Thanks everyone!!!
I picked him up and I love him. He's cruising around the tank like he owns the place. Already saw him eat some frozen mysis. I appreciate everyone's input! You guys are the best!