Alligator Pipefish Not Eating

[woven1web]

Hi All,

Okay I need some input on what to do. I have an alligator pipefish that I got at the LFS and it is not eating. I have tried live brine and frozen mysid shrimp but he/she is not interesed in either. It appears that he/she constantly looks down in the sand bed and at the live rocks for something like copepods. Do they eat copepods as their sole diet??

I just ordered 100 live opussom shrimp from aquaculture to see if he/she will eat these.

Any suggestions on what to feed would be greatly appreciated.

[monkey21]

you should add some copepods as these are relished by pipes. they will quickly eat them all. so you may want to culture some. same thing for the mydis shrimp. try to culture some. otherwise you will have tobbuy more and quite frequently. maybe a fuge. ya can get them on ebayat a good price or make you own

[punkroknrol]

Try cyclopeeze! Frozen especially. They will eat pods tho, but they will go through them like crazy.

[LisaD]

The live opposum shrimp (mysids) should do the trick if the pipe is healthy enough to eat. Wild caught pipes and seahorses often don't recognize frozen food or brine shrimp as food. Whenever buying WC syngnathids you need to be preparted to quarantine, treat for disease and indefinitely offer live food, as there are no guarantees they will ever eat frozen food or live brine shrimp (which are nutritionally inadequate anyway).