Feeding Pipefish

ezcompany · #1 09/26/2007, 08:33 PM

Hello all, recently I got a orange banded pipefish.
The first day it took in one mysis, and some cyclopeeze. now it has just been hanging out in the corner without much activity. Is there a trick to get these guys to start eating again? The tank is small so feeding it prepared food is a must. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!

JetCat USA · #2 09/26/2007, 08:50 PM

Live food usually gets them going and then mix in the prepared with it till they readily consume it. gut loaded brine work pretty good.

danfrith · #3 09/26/2007, 11:03 PM

Hey ez, sorry about yur tank crash, you had one of the most beautiful nanos around. So, is this pipe in the 24? Also, do you know the species?

ezcompany · #4 09/26/2007, 11:54 PM

Thanks danfrith. This guy is in my 12 gallon. The first night it took in cyclopeeze and was swimming the tank. now it just hovers the corner. it is the orange banded pipefish.

JetCat USA · #5 09/27/2007, 12:04 AM

most likely because he's been stung repeatedly, you shouldn't ever put pipefish or seahorses in a tank with corals.

danfrith · #6 09/27/2007, 12:25 AM

Actually I disagree. Many pipefish, including this species do come from indo-pacifica reefs with many corals including stinging LPS. The only thing i wold be careful of putting them with is large anenomes ( carpet). As to why its not eating im not sure. I did have difficulty getting mine to feed at first but you say yours has already fed. It could still be aclimating to the light, water temperture, ... Or it could be harbouring some sort of internal parasite. I would try giving it a few days. Also, this species IME reacts porely to cramped, small aquariums. So I would move it to the 24 as soon as possible. Good luck.

ezcompany · #7 09/27/2007, 01:05 AM

really...but the problem with the 24 is that there's too much flow cuz its an sps tank? won't they get stuck to powerheads and such?

Bidadari · #8 09/27/2007, 12:45 PM

I have a red banded pipe in a 75 full blown SPS tank which has 2 tunzes for flow. So far the pipe is doing really well, even swimming near the tunze to hunt for pods without any problem. I have him in there for about 4-5mo. Good luck with your pipe.

ezcompany · #9 09/27/2007, 07:38 PM

are these guys nocturnal? it seems like he swims around more at night and just chills in the corner during the day.
i have a Mystery Wrasse in the 24 gallon, i don't see any problem but just in case i'm gonna ask, is it ok?

danfrith · #10 09/27/2007, 07:40 PM

I'd say he'd be fine in there. They actually are pretty smart swimmers, not very strong but smart and I kept a pair in my 30 gal. sps tank with qutie a bit of flow. he would also have more in terms of live food to hunt in a larger tank. Good luck.

danfrith · #11 09/27/2007, 07:45 PM

Im pretty sure all pipefish species are diurnal, atleast mine are. My old pair of the multi banded pipes didnt like the light either and mostly stayed in the rockwork when the metal halides where on. The mystery wrasse shoudnt be a problem as it seems most reeffish ignore pipefish but I would still keep an eye on it for a couple weeks just to be sure.

ezcompany · #12 09/27/2007, 10:01 PM

bad news guys...when i got home it was dead

danfrith · #13 09/27/2007, 10:27 PM

Oh man, sorry. I think this is the most difficult out of the pipefish to keep alive. If you still are interested in some pipefish, the bluestripe IME is a very hardy species and readilly exepct s frozen mysis. It also only gets to about 3 inches long. Good luck ez, can't wait to see your 24 up and running again.

ezcompany · #14 09/28/2007, 02:41 AM

thanks danfrith. can you post a pic of how the bluestripe looks like when you get the chance? thanks again

danfrith · #15 09/28/2007, 06:44 PM

Heres a not so great picture of my pair. Ive actually lost two males but have had the female for 2 1/2 years. You can also see the pregnant male in this picture.

ezcompany · #16 09/29/2007, 06:35 PM

wow those are nice. thanks for the help

shibby time · #17 10/01/2007, 12:29 PM

i had two golden banded pipefish and there were 5 all together in the shop.

i got the two that were feeding at the shop, one unfortunaetly like yours went off frozen food and died, and the other loves it still which is lucky.

what do you guys think about trying out soem live brine im worried he'l expect it too much and go off frozen though.

sorry to hear about the loss ez, those bluestripe look lush though.

erickrm · #18 10/01/2007, 02:30 PM

whats up EZ sorry to hear about your loss, i keep pipes in my SPS dominated tank that has 1 tunze 6055 and the return pump that pushes about 400G back into the tank, i have 1 bluestripe(african), 1 banded and on order is a pair of dragon face. what i do is to feed them(once a day) is turn off all the water flow mix up my rotifers for the corals, and dilute it a little with some tank water and add some frozen cyclopes along with some live(trigger pods) then just mixe it up a lil and feed the tank.... since they were both wild caught at first they only took to t he trigger pods which kinda bummed me bc i did not want to spend 15bux a bottle every week to keep them alive but as time went on eventually they started to eat the frozen and not so much for the live. now i feed only frozen and they hunt the rest of the day for the copepod's that live int he tank.

Best thing i would say is dont add any pipefish right now just add a couple of bottles of RN Trigger pods and let them cultivate your tank once you see them all over you're glass(little babies) go ahead and add a bluestripe(very easy and hardy as mentioned b4) and go from there. Good luck with everything man hope you get back into the pipes

if you want i will post a picture of my bluestripe later... my cat decided to push my cam off the diner table and well i am sure you can imagine what happened next!

ezcompany · #19 10/01/2007, 06:36 PM

thanks for the encouragement guys.
my pipe ignored live baby brine at the store. i guess i should've took that as a sign