First time pipefish owner

[GoldfishtheKing]

I've been in the reef hobby for roughly 8 months, i have a 30 gallon nano cube and I traded some frags for a pipefish, hes green in color and swims all over the places and he'll swim up to power heads and let them push him around and stuff. he seems really active if i touch my tank he'll swim up to my hand. but he keeps managing to find ways to get his tail stuck on things, he got it stuck on some rock, i got him loose with out any injury then he thought it would be a good idea to wrap his tail around my power head, and it got stuck, i woke up in around ~2:30 am and saw it and got it loose. how do i keep him from getting it stuck all the time?

[Cirrhitichthys]

Could you get a picture of him?

He sounds like a dragonface pipefish, which are actually pipehorses. So he may not be stuck, rather, he is holding onto the rocks and powerhead. I'd suggest getting a powerhead which is not open, so a maxijet, or the like. This will prevent him from gripping onto the powerhead, and having it shear off his tail. Good luck with the little guy.

~Cirrhi

[rssjsb]

I agree a picture would help.

The pipefish that are usually referred to as "dragonface" pipes do not have gripping prehensile tails. But they're also not green. This is why common names re a problem.

Could it be an alligator pipe?

[namxas]

I agree with Robin...sounds like S. biaculeatus (alligator pipe).

[rssjsb]

Lol, after going off on common names, I did it myself. Thanks, Greg.