pipefish question
- Thread starter fungia
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Eh, some of them do just fine with high flow. The Doryrhamphus spp. in particular come from the reef proper.
They are certainly not "easy". Their tankmates need to be carefully considered, and most will refuse captive foods. Keeping them well fed is the biggest challenge. Geetting them to eat, first of all, and then getting them enough to eat, and often. They are of course easily pestered by lots of fishes, and make easy prey for any type of predator. Clowns, gobies, some basslets, some blennies, etc. are the best.
Having said all that, D. excisus (the blue stripe pipefish) is not all that terribly hard to keep because of its small size. A 20 gallon tank loaded with live rock, with a good refugium and a thriving pod population is enough to keep one fed all on its own. They are apparently one of the less reluctant pipes to accept frozen mysis as well. I kept one for a year in the above situation before moving it to a larger tank. Rich (Thales) had one for a while in his reef tank IIRC.
They are certainly not "easy". Their tankmates need to be carefully considered, and most will refuse captive foods. Keeping them well fed is the biggest challenge. Geetting them to eat, first of all, and then getting them enough to eat, and often. They are of course easily pestered by lots of fishes, and make easy prey for any type of predator. Clowns, gobies, some basslets, some blennies, etc. are the best.
Having said all that, D. excisus (the blue stripe pipefish) is not all that terribly hard to keep because of its small size. A 20 gallon tank loaded with live rock, with a good refugium and a thriving pod population is enough to keep one fed all on its own. They are apparently one of the less reluctant pipes to accept frozen mysis as well. I kept one for a year in the above situation before moving it to a larger tank. Rich (Thales) had one for a while in his reef tank IIRC.
Unarce":3n70po9f said:
Ah, very good point. I kept mine with SPS corals and a clam, so it wasn't really an issue. I wouldn't keep it with some of the stingier LPS corals like Galaxea or Catalaphyllia, or any anemones, but it should be okay with most corals. They swim around in open water just like any other fish and avoid that kind of stuff. I think it's the Corythoichthys species (dragonface, messmate) that slink around on the rocks you'd be more concerned about.
I've had my blue stripe for 2+ years now, in my mixed reef 
It's never had a problem with the flow, or the gnarly LPS's I have It's a pretty dense tank though, so it gets plenty of areas to work that are fairly protected. Fat little bugger, only comes out early morning though. I've got a really dense "pod" population though :lol: There's not a square inch in my fuge and sump, that aren't moving with swarms of "pods"
It's never had a problem with the flow, or the gnarly LPS's I have It's a pretty dense tank though, so it gets plenty of areas to work that are fairly protected. Fat little bugger, only comes out early morning though. I've got a really dense "pod" population though :lol: There's not a square inch in my fuge and sump, that aren't moving with swarms of "pods" GreshamH":3osysjw8 said:I've had my blue stripe for 2+ years now, in my mixed reef
For some reason I don't doubt you'd have a thriving pod population Gresh.
Does yours eat frozen mysids?
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