pipefish and reef [Archive] - Reef Central Online Community

fishieness

11/08/2006, 09:09 AM

some pipefish have better survival rates than others. many will only eat natrual foods like pods. some claim they will even eat red bugs. But it depends a lot on the fish. The survival of some is very low, while others are high. however, i am not sure how well they would do with the high flow of an sps tank although i have seen pictures of them in sps reefs.
but i want to tag along because id long to get one :)

joetbs

11/08/2006, 10:51 AM

Some of them will do ok, like the Dragonface Pipe, mainly because of their movement habits. They tend to creep along as opposed to swimming. I doubt most of the free swimming ones stand a chance.

joe

naka

11/08/2006, 11:03 AM

Hey Joe, the pipefish that I got from you at MACNA is still doing fine. Eating like a pig and swims out on the open when the lights go out or about to come on.

James

joetbs

11/08/2006, 11:13 AM

James, that's good to hear.

Those are one of the exceptions :D

joe

GreshamH

11/08/2006, 11:27 AM

My blue stripe has been in my reef for ~2 years now. It's one fat sucker :D

Paul B

11/08/2006, 11:31 AM

I have a mated pair of bluestripes for about a year in my 100 gallon reef. They spawn all the time and require no care. They take care of themselves and find their own pods. I hatch brine shrimp every day for them but they really don't need them.
Paul
Here he is pregnant like he usually is.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094Pregnant_pipefish.jpg

coralnut99

11/08/2006, 11:31 AM

I had a pair of Jans' pipes in one of my reefs for almost 3 years. They spawned regularly too. It was fascinating to watch the male carry the eggs in his pouch. It was super easy to see as this species basically swims upside down. I lost them in a stoopid top-off disaster that I still kick myself for. Great fish. The free swimming types will stick close to the rock, and if you can open up your aquascaping to allow bigger caves, etc. they are definitely a great reef fish in my experience. The real small blue-stripe pipes are cool too, but wouldn't add much to bigger tanks. Predators like crabs and CBS are an issue too.

gasman059

11/08/2006, 12:52 PM

so blue stripes good option? maybe dragonfacepipe? correct

gasman059

11/08/2006, 12:53 PM

hey paulb nice pic alittle more info on husbandry and diet.

gasman059

11/08/2006, 12:54 PM

any pics of your setup and flow appreciated thanks in advance

Sparkss

11/08/2006, 01:49 PM

we had a pair of dragonfaced pipefish for almost a year and a half, not mated (at least no spawning that I saw), but bought at the same time. They just passed, one within a week of the other, so I don't know if it was tank conditions or just old age ? (no idea their age when we first got them). Our 2 yr+ mandarin is still going strong, so I don't think it was a lack of food.

gasman059

11/08/2006, 02:44 PM

great , considering two pipefish and a mandarin for my setup at this time maybe another 6 months. Any specific species, I've heard dragonface most likely?

coralnut99

11/08/2006, 03:39 PM

I had great luck getting the Jans' to eat frozen mysis, but they are hard to find. I also had goo dluck with a dragonface and a bluestripe, since the tanks they went into were very mature, and no predators, so they were pretty much no-maintenance. Liveaquaria has dragonface pipes from time to time at a really good price, but it seems to be only once or twice a year.

gasman059

11/08/2006, 04:05 PM

U guys can i get a reference for a thread and or site in which predators can be indetified? thanks again

dhnguyen

11/08/2006, 06:24 PM

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8502357#post8502357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gasman059
please advice me on a reef and posible pipefish survival

Get yourself a dragonface pipefish. Mine is doing great in my mixed reef and have been in there for about 1.5 years now. This is pretty much about the only pipefish that can handle the kind of flow in an SPS tank IMO.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=282

D.

brianbigoats

11/08/2006, 08:15 PM

My dragonface pipefish is doing great mostly hangs out on the rocks. current does not seem to bother it I've had it for 8 mos.

Dav

11/08/2006, 11:35 PM

Funny this thread was started today I was just speaking with another hobbyist that I was going to try something different and put a pipefish in my reef tank. I think I like the blue stripe the bets for me. It will be the first fish, Do you think any on-line store could figure out who is male and female before shipping or should I just buy 3 and let them work it out? It is a 220 gallon sps and zoa reef so room is not as much of an issue.
But how do they handle flow? I use a lot of flow and tons of hiding places for my smaller fish
Opinions?
Dav

Kinetic

11/09/2006, 12:56 AM

i know that african blue stripes can handle flow, and are the most suited (claimed by many) for a reef tank of all pipefish.

-TS-Vash

11/09/2006, 01:26 AM

One one keeping them with tunze power heads though?

coralnut99

11/09/2006, 07:56 AM

Pipes are "smart" swimmers. I doubt you'll see them get sucked into a powerhead unless it's positioined too close to your rocks. They generally only venture away from cover if food is flying by.

Big E

11/09/2006, 10:01 AM

Those Janssi are beautiful........RM has one on it's site now.

pk1

11/09/2006, 10:34 AM

I've got 2 bluestripes on the way from Liveaquaria, I asked if I could get a M and F-they said they could request it but by no means guarantee it. I wasn't able to find much info on-line about telling the difference either. These are going into my 180 reef, I hope I can get them to eat prepared food, but I am culturing brine shrimp in the meantime.

PK

BTW--TS-Vash that clam in your avatar is stunning!

Dav

11/09/2006, 12:55 PM

PK
if you don't want to mess with raising your own Brine shrimp, I have a friend local to me who gets the decaped BBS and it is refrigerated and all you do it add the eggs and 12 hours later you have live food. I feed them to my reef all the time.
Just go to www.coraldynamics.com if it is not on the site e-mail and ask him about it, he will give you his source if he can
Also on the Tunze, I built mine for down the road growth so no worries about any rock getting close to them for a while. Maybe corals in a year or so.
Here is a pic
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b322/jdmiller01/100_6955.jpg

It looks much better now , but for comparision it is 30" deep and 48 " wide and 30" tall. The rest is overflows and sump space for pod growth. Plenty of room for a couple of pipefish
Dav

pk1

11/09/2006, 04:23 PM

Dav-nice tank, that is going to look great when it grows out. Actually I did get the decapsulated BBS from brineshrimpdirect-I think that is the same thing you are talking about? Do you toss yours right into the tank or do the 2 liter bottle culture technique?

Dav

11/09/2006, 06:30 PM

right in, if they don't eat the eggs they can eat the live when they hatch. That is my thoughts on it
Dav

danfrith

11/09/2006, 08:33 PM

Another pipefish thread. There have been alot of these lately. IME, most of the doryrhamphus species (banded, multi-banded,jans, bluestripe) are well suited for reef tanks. Also the dragon face pipes and the rest of the Corythoichthys genus are good too. You can sex the bluestripes 2 ways. First, and easiest, is if you look at the snout of the the males, they have tiny little flaps of skin that are kind of raised up (I think this is unique to the bluestripe pipefish only). You can also see in the males that their pouch looks kind of hollowed out in the stomach area, not found on females. I would try feeding live artemia, mysis if possible. I have also found success with frozen mysis, cyclopeeze, and bbs.
What ever your chioce good luck. Also, The livaquaria.com website has a good photo of the mails pouch and the skin on the snout.

Here is a picture of my pair. Female on the top, male on the bottom.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l236/joefrith/DSC00109.jpg

Dav

11/09/2006, 08:45 PM

BEAUTIFUL

JJohn

11/10/2006, 01:08 AM

Here is my little Dragon Face. Sorry to those who saw this image in the other thread. I have quite a bit of flow in my tank but he stays low, against rocks, and in the calmer sections of the reef. I really like these fish. He eats frozen "Cyclops" food but takes care of himself for the most part. I have gone well over a week without feeding him. My tank has a great pod population.

John

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n299/JJohn_photos/DFPF3S.jpg

Kinetic

11/10/2006, 01:11 AM

amazing dragonface and acro he's/she's next to!!! looks like a snake in a way.

pk1

11/10/2006, 09:14 AM

Great pics !

Paul B

11/16/2006, 01:52 PM

Sorry I was in Sicily for nine days and just returned a few minutes ago. My pipefish find their own food but I raise brine shrimp every day just to be sure. In the last nine days they were not fed at all and they look fine.
Paul

pk1

11/17/2006, 08:51 AM

As promised here are my new African Blue Stripes. Ordered from LiveAquaria, as always they did a great job. I called in the order to request a male and female, described what the difference was from Paul B's explanation (thanks Paul!), and was lucky enough to get a pair. They have been hiding for the most part, until last night when I added the first batch of baby brine shrimp, since then they have been exploring the whole tank, none of the other fish even notice them, other than the tail spot goby who seems to enjoy hanging out with them. Sorry for the crappy pics, out of 50 these were the best!

With flash
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/pnkelly1/Halloween06191.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/pnkelly1/Halloween06187.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j94/pnkelly1/Halloween06171.jpg