Pipefish - Is there an easier one to keep?

[chrisbenavides]

I am considering a tank mate for a pair of H. Kuda that I will be getting from seahorsesource.com. I thought about a pipefish, but don't know if they are easy to keep or if they require more than special feeding requirements.

All these here seem to difficult: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=267

Thanks! :)

If not a pipefish, what is a good tankmate for these horses?

I read a list, but I want to know from a person's personal experience too. And also, if you agree with this list: http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates.shtml

Gobies:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1850

Shrimp:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=525

I really would like some shrimp in my H. Kuda tank, but uis anyone hesitant in putting shrimp in a seahorse tank? If not, which one???

[hawkfish21]

I have found pipefish to be easy as long as they are eating frozen food.

[Samala]

I'm pretty sure shrimp fall into two categories with SH: potential meals and those that get large enough to avoid being eaten but turn right around and annoy the horses. I would avoid shrimp in total honestly. Perhaps someone else has a good option for you to try.

>Sarah

[chrisbenavides]

Thats good too know that they can be easy when feeding off of frozen food, but how would I know this from liveaquaria.com. I don't have a LFS that sells any pipefish, so I would get my stuff online (like seahorsesource.com).

Do you know a good place to get pipefish? Maybe they can honestly tell me if their pipefish eat frozen foods. If you all know of anybody who sells pipefish and is honest and trustworty, let me know. You can PM me as well. THANKS!!!

[ReefNutPA]

Chris... do NOT add wild caught pipefish with captive bred seahorses!! You're just asking for trouble. That would be no better than mixing WC horses with CB horses.

I know you've been reading lots and have certainly come across this point in your reading. So even though you'd like pipes, I know that you know it's a very bad idea. I just thought I'd remind you. ;)

Is there a particular reason you feel the need to add fish tankmates in with your seahorses?

Tom

[hawkfish21]

I guess I just got lucky. I have pipes with CB horses. Everything seems to be fine.

[ReefNutPA]

Yup, you got lucky. Doesn't mean they aren't carrying pathogens, it just means if they are it hasn't compromised their immune system.

Even after a quarantine of weeks... it's still a risk introducing ANY wild caught syngnathid in with captive bred ones. Some people are willing to take that risk.

Tom

[hawkfish21]

What are the signs of pathogens in seahorses?

[ReefNutPA]

They would be quite apparent. There are many different symptoms.... body lesions, white bumps/pustules on the tail, swollen tail, white tail tip, snout rot, etc....

If you've mixed and things are going well... kudo's to you! Others have taken the risk as well, and it's worked out fine so far. Still others have tried it and they no longer have seahorses.

I just would never advise someone new to seahorses to consider getting pipes as tankmates. It's a very risky thing to do.

Tom

[hawkfish21]

Thanks for the info. I'll keep an eye out for those symptons. In the meantime, no more pipefish for me.

[chrisbenavides]

I know I shouldn't have pipefish :) oh well....

The reason wa sI wanted other signs of life (not just the rock and H. Kuda) which is why I also commented about shrimp or other inverts that go well. But if this BEST thing is SEahorses with live rock, I am cool with that too.

[pledosophy]

Dude ! There are a ton fo great ank amtes out there. You are not stuck with seahorses only. Open the horizon's my friend.

I have kept personally all for over a year with no problems:

firefish
cardinal fish
manderin goby
twin spot goby
dragonet
yellow watchman goby
green clown goby
peppermin shrimp
cleaner shrimp
sand sifting star fish
nausarius snails
astrea snails
red legged scarlet reef hermits
various corals including:
mushrooms,
leathers,
zoo's,
sponges,
macro algaes,
and xenia

There are many more tankmate options available, those are jsut the ones I kept personally.

I ahve also kept a six line wrasse for about 8 months with no issues. i didn't have good luck with a salfin tang or clown fish both after about 9 months.

I have found the tankmate article on seahorse.org to be accurate.

The issue with mixing pipefish extends to CB pipes, as well as to other species. it is the same set of risks involved with mixing any syngnathids.

If someonw has already mixed best recipe for succsess is lower tank temps, 70F is good, a big ol UV, and a few bottles of Neo3 Just in case. Lower temps help to slow the growth of the bacteria and can stop some strains from growing completely, UV kills the bacteria in the water column, and the Neo works for treatment when the other two don't. :) It is one of those cases where no amount of QT is going to help you. Your odds of no problems mixing species is about 25% overall depending on the species. IMHO if you see no signs of illness in the first 6 months you are going to be O.K.

Good Luck.

[seamonkey2]

I have been really lucky, I got 11 alligator pipes, 2 small banded, 2 regular banded, 2 african blue stripe, 2 janes, 3 dwarf pipes, 2 gulf pipes, 24 SH of 5 different kinds, 2 star sand sifters, 1 walking bat, 1 yellow wrasse, 200 pounds of LR, bunch of different sea grass, and others thinks, I run a 5 foot tall skimmer, Ca reactor, a ozone reactor and other gadgets, in a 215ga tank and 55ga sump

everybody gets along fine, I get babys every other month(I got about 60 now from the newest birth, to include 20 baby dwarf pipes)

very lucky indeed

Jose

[Jordan55]

WOW! Got any pictures?

[pledosophy]

How long ahs that system been running?

I too would love to see some pictures. Amazing that you can keep 50 fish in that size tank and have everything run so smoothly. Really would love to see pics.

Also since this is the seahorse forum, what species of seahorses do you have?

[seamonkey2]

the tank has been running for about a year now, more or less, yes I credit luck in large quatities, and over doing the set up with fail safetys and extra large equipment to the sucsess of my tanks, and feeding the herds 2,000 ghost shrimp (yes 2,000) a week and supplementing with frozen brine twice a day, thats why they are so fat and giving babys all the time

the are pics in WWW.MAAST.org go to the photo forum and find the "seamonkey (jose's pics)" thread there are 3 different threads, my pic. taking skills suck, so a friend of mine took a bunch.

pledosophy, until you pointed out I did not realize there were that many in the tank, that is funny, I got a big tank so I can keep few different kinds of pipes and SH's and still looks empty LOL, with close to 50 fish LOL

kudas, tiger tails, whites, erectus, I think that is it

well you guys LMK what you think

Jose

[pledosophy]

Found the posts, nice systems. Have to admit I didn't believe you at first. It's amazing how in the full tank shot you can barely see any of the seahores, your right it still looks kinda empty. The corals are lovely.

FYI the tiger tails are hippocampus comes.

Can you get some pics of the whitei ? ? ? They are one of my favorites and not many people keep them.

Your erectus and your reidi are both beautiful. That red color is oustanding.

Feeding 2000 ghosts a week must be a challenge, I thought I had it bad feeding 100 ghosts a week.

Keep up the work!

BTW your reef is amazing as well. Love the naso. :)

[tweety69711]

Hello,
I have 5 seahorses and 2 pipefish and they get along well.. they are banded pipefish from www.marinedepotlive.com they were $15 each.

[waterfaller1]

What about a bunch of sexy shrimp? They stay small..stay out and perch on stuff,and don't bother anyone.

[pledosophy]

Sexy shrimp would be a great snack for a seahorse. :) My reidi will eat shrimp twice the size of the biggest sexy shrimp you ever saw, the seahorses will see them as food.

[waterfaller1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6943545#post6943545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pledosophy
Sexy shrimp would be a great snack for a seahorse. :) My reidi will eat shrimp twice the size of the biggest sexy shrimp you ever saw, the seahorses will see them as food. Oh..shows you how much I know about horses. Thanks for the correction. Best to post about stuff I know about huh?;)

[seamonkey2]

pledosophy, you didn't believe me?? LOL

yeah if I were you I wouldn't believe me either, but I have the tanks eh??? :)

yeah the naso is a cool fish, but my favorite are the gator pipes, at night the all bunch up together.

feeding that many shrimp is no big deal, I dump them all once a week and they hunt all week long

glad you like the pics

Jose

[Samala]

Ooooooh very very nice Jose! I love the little clowns in the reef. Pipes are fun too.

>Sarah

[Swanwillow]

wow-so heres the question of the century for ya Jose...

do you have inter-species breeding? or did the horses/pipes all find thier own species?

[seamonkey2]

there has been some....fence jumping on the part of the horses, but to tell you the truth, I can't tell what goes on in there, I got all tiger's ( I like that name better than H. comes LOL)males pregnant, and the girls are not talking LOL

the pipes are keeping to themselfs.

and nobody is messing with the yellow wrasse ROTFLMAO

also the clowns give me babys every month or so, I just can't get the fry, they usually are born at night, and I'm sure they become food :(

I'm trying to get a pair of every species in the tanks, so everybody has a date for valentine's, so far so good, hey should I rename my tanks "the ark"?

oh yeah, is not in the pics, but I also have "the SH/Pipe Nursery", are actually...lets see...1 20ga tank of live phyto, 1 10ga BB, 1 10ga rotifers, 3 10ga baby horse/pipe w/ 2 inner tanks w/krill like rotation, 2 15ga grow out tanks.....ahhhhh and the dwarf SH tank is 20ga RR w/ a 30ga sump

and my wife hasn't kill me yet :)

Jose

[Swanwillow]

so, have you raised out any babies?
if not, you should watch thier characteristics, to see if they have been interbreeding. ie: if the tigertails have babies, you know that they are at least half tiger tail... watch them for other characteristics from the others: no stripes on tail, different coronets... different hitching styles from birth, etc.

[chrisbenavides]

Do people mix-breed seahorses, and does the outcome usually yeild a healthy sh or a unhealthy seahorse?

has anyone ever mixed a Kuda with an Erectus? What was the outcome?

[Swanwillow]

not really-I know of few people that have been sucessful cross-breeding, and never erectus/kuda...

and noone knows if the fry is viable. its usually an accident

[kidzatheart]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6942014#post6942014 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by waterfaller1
What about a bunch of sexy shrimp? They stay small..stay out and perch on stuff,and don't bother anyone.

Hello. I have 3 seahorses, 1 pipefish, 1 jawfish, and 2 sexy shrimp in one tank. My horses i would guess are about 5 inches. I dont know if they are redi or kudas. When i tried to get an ID i was told both names. I was then told to count the lines on the back fin. I find this impossible. Anyways, my sexy shrimps hang out on the blueberry gorgonia and the horses never bother them.

[pnsnowboard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6936881#post6936881 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seamonkey2
I have been really lucky, I got 11 alligator pipes, 2 small banded, 2 regular banded, 2 african blue stripe, 2 janes, 3 dwarf pipes, 2 gulf pipes, 24 SH of 5 different kinds, 2 star sand sifters, 1 walking bat, 1 yellow wrasse, 200 pounds of LR, bunch of different sea grass, and others thinks, I run a 5 foot tall skimmer, Ca reactor, a ozone reactor and other gadgets, in a 215ga tank and 55ga sump

everybody gets along fine, I get babys every other month(I got about 60 now from the newest birth, to include 20 baby dwarf pipes)

very lucky indeed

Jose

that is one of the most beautiful tanks that i have ever seen
thats absolutely amazing

[edshern]

Anyon know where can I find pipes that are trained to eat frozen food??

[Swanwillow]

thats the question of the century-nope, sorry

[hooterhead]

My alligator pipes ate frozen on the first day. I work at the LFS where I got them and they ate there on the 1st day too. Seems like those are the easiest to keep...for us anyway. The banded usually eat frozen after a week or so, but they do it in secrecy. The one we have now, after 3 weeks, will finally eat when I'm standing there.

BTW my 2 pipes are in with 2 H. reidi. No problems so far but I was watching the pipes for a month or so at the shop so that could definitely make a difference.

[tweety69711]

the banded pipes i have eat frozen food... i got them from marinedepotlive.com for $15

[Swanwillow]

cool... ya'll are lucky, from what I hear ;)