Care of Striped Shrimpfish

[CuttleKid]

I've been doing a lot of thinking and i have decided to set up a species tank for these guys
http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp177/Weavers_photo/lg-89399-shrimpfish.jpg

Has anyone ever kept these guys or know someone who has. if you do please give some info because i plan on setting up this tank this summer. Ive kept other pipefish and have had great success with them. I have a thirty gallon cube that i plan on converting to a seagrass bed with a group of these cute little creatures. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

[inazuma]

This is one of my favorite fish.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't have any personal experience with this fish nor know anyone who cares for them. That said, from what I've read, the biggest problem that occurs is supplying enough live food to meet their needs.

If you watch how they feed, it looks to me like they are probably picking at harpacticoid copepods. So when it comes to feeding them, think mandarin. Let's do a thought excercise, replace the shrimpfish with mandarins. How many mandies do you think your tank can support? Well, take that number, and now you have your max number of shrimpfish. Keep in mind how tightly they school/shoal in the wild, it makes me think that a solitary shrimpfish would result in an unhappy shrimpfish, and you would probably want a group anyway.

Bottom line, if you can't supply live foods for their entire lives, don't get them. There is no guarantee they will ever eat prepared or feeze dried.

Hope that helps, maybe someone who has cared for them will chime in.

[namxas]

i was going to chime in with the same info...

i know a couple of very experienced aquarists, as well as a public aquarium that has had similar issues when keeping these fish (groups are a must). even tho the specimens in question ate prepared foods with gusto, they rarely survive the 6-8 month mark on that diet. i think a year was the longest time for one or two of the specimens.

[inazuma]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15219102#post15219102 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by inazuma
There is no guarantee they will ever eat prepared or feeze dried.

Haha, not sure why I typed freeze dried, I meant frozen. :cool:

Greg, do you know what their natural lifespan is? Just wondering if it was a lack of proper nutrition that caused their death, or is it a flame scallop situation?

[namxas]

to be honest, i've never kept them, altho "everyone" i know who has kept them seems to think it's longer than a year. then again, who knows what age specimens are captured at...

[fishguy194]

Working at the national aquarium in baltimore in the seahorse breeding facility, we had a group of 8 that lived for at least 5 years, and were shipped to Italy. Their diet consisted of newly hatched enriched brine shrimp and cyclop-eeze on a drip feeder that fed them for 2 hours twice a day. Mixed into that diet were adult enriched brine shrimp and frozen mysis once a day. They had a lot of food going in. If I were going to set up a species tank I would do a 40 breeder or a 65 with a group of about at least 6. I've kept them myself but found it VERY difficult to make the time to feed these guys. If you have the time to devote to them twice a day... by all means.

[Lucky.U]

Wow thats a long time..

[iamwrasseman]

yes they need feedings that are long enough for them to get proper nutrition they are not aggresive eaters and they eat the smallest of foods so has to be the first thing that is considered and the most important . i had four and really didnt know what i was doing and they lived for a few years until a power outage during a vacation took them out . i have many wrasses and have always fed during the day a few times and i really think that it helped them survive as well as they did as well as the wrasses . i think a calm tank will help also as they can better catch their prey , live brine and PE-mysis was what mine ate and they did extreemly well . i really think they need small amounts of food all day long as the mandarins do and they just will constantly graze the area .they are cool to watch but certainly need have some requirements that cant be met if you are gone for a couple of days a week or work long hours . i own my business and its six blocks away so it is always conveint to go home a few times a day and that is key to keeping them IMO. i hope that you do well with then and good luck to ya !

[namxas]

very cool...i'm glad there have been "good" experiences with these fish.

it does seem odd that they were able to take PE mysis tho, but i've found that flagfin pipes can eat pretty large fare as well.

i hope that anyone planning to keep these fish sees the level of care these fish require before making the jump so they can be ready for the challenge.

OT: 17 tanx! i thought i was bad cuz we have 12!!!!

[iamwrasseman]

i did smash up the pe-mysis for them so i dont think they can eat the full size ones .sorry i missed that there

[inazuma]

iamwrasseman,

Just wanted to give a big "Thank You" for posting that information. :rollface:

[iamwrasseman]

we all are here helping and looking for help at the same time ,glad to be of assistance .

[small alien]

check out the recent article about Sabine Sax's tank in either Coral or the new mag Reef Life (I can't remember which but it's been in one of the last two issues of one of those mags.) She has a school of shrimpfish that eat frozen with vigor. Good luck.

[iamwrasseman]

awesome to hear !

[small alien]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15312610#post15312610 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by small alien
check out the recent article about Sabine Sax's tank in either Coral or the new mag Reef Life (I can't remember which but it's been in one of the last two issues of one of those mags.) She has a school of shrimpfish that eat frozen with vigor. Good luck.

It's the mouthbrooder issue of Coral from last month.