Pipe fish?

Does anyone have one??? The LFS has a yellow multibanded pipe fish in a reef tank and I was wondering what kind of requirements were going to be required? I'm in the process of doing most LPS so my flow is not out of control I just took a power head out of my tank even. I do have some other pod eaters in my tank but my mandarin will eat frozen previous owner was feeding it flake food! I have had a refugium going since my first tank (a year ago) so there are TONS of pods in there (I know they go fast) but what kind of things would I have to think about if I wanted to try this or am I nuts....
 
Pipefish are definitely on my list of things to get "someday." I've steered clear until I can get a good supply of pods going. Two things to find out before you buy: How long has this guy been at the LFS and is it wild caught or captive bred? If the LFS is having success feeding him then you probably will too and you may have to de-worm a wild caught pipefish. If you get him, please keep us updated about your experience!

Catherine
 
Most pipefish are wild caught. They are not to difficult to keep as long as your water quality is good, they don't like being around alot of fast swimming fish. I have 4 different species right now in my 180. Multibanded, dragon (corythoichthys), Janses and dwarf blue lines (breeding pair). All of my pipes eat frozen food, I feed them cyclops, cyclopeeze and baby mysis {daily}. and of course they eat pods as well.

I had a pair of multibanded a few years ago that also was breeding.

Be sure the pipe at the LFS is eating before you take him.

Let me know if you have any other questions, pipes are something that I have been keeping for close to 10 years. ;)
 
Winyfrog, are pipefish best kept in pairs, like horses? How do you get the frozen food to them? Are there any species that are easier or hardier than others?

C
 
Winyfrog, are pipefish best kept in pairs, like horses? How do you get the frozen food to them? Are there any species that are easier or hardier than others?

C

Yes pipefish are social and do much better in pairs. I just usually put a cube of cyclops or one of the others by my pump inlet and it will shoot it through my tank.

I have found that the multibanded are usually a bit hardier because they can eat larger food. the dragons are the hardest to keep. I would avoid the larger green ones (alligator sometimes called dragon as well)
 
So my fish guy can get me TR pipe :) hummmm I think I may... He told me if I can get the full Latin name he can get me whatever specifically I want...
 
OK so he can't get TR pipes, I misunderstood. He does have a line on dragon pipes he says they come in eating frozen, but I am pretty sure I want the multi stripped I like that it stands out from my other fish a lot! So he is going to start looking and see what he can find. He thinks it will be a couple of weeks before it gets in...and he reminded me I have almost enough store credit left it will be like $5!!! Can't go wrong... What kinds of pods do they eat? copepod? amphipod? I was going to pick up another bottle of live pods ASAP but I want to make sure I get what they will eat. The only reason I am worried is I do have a lot of other pod eaters I just want to make sure :)
 
they eat both copepods and amphipods. Multibanded pipes are easy to get trained to frozen foods, I would start with cyclops (Mine like this the best) then start adding some baby mysis to their diet and you should be fine. Then be sure to feed them at least daily, twice is best.

If its the green dragon pipes deffinatley avoid them. The longest I have seen one survive is just a few month.
 
cyclops is frozen copepods. I usually just melt it down and dump or squirt it in the tank, I sometime throw a cube next to my pump and it will just get sucked in as it melts. The mysis I just melt it down and squirt it in with a turkey baster.

the cyclops is so small that my corals eat it as well.
 
I have had a few of them die for apparently no reason and I have tons of copepods. If they cannot be kept in the home they should quit selling them, damnit. Now I know. :grumble:
 
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