Best pipefish for consuming amphipods off rocks

[living_tribunal]

I’m sorry to be back with another “will eat amphipod” thread but I couldn’t find much information on the subject.

I’ve noticed my current banded pipefish doesn’t seem to eat many amphipods off of the rocks, even the smaller ones.

I’m curious to learn if a dragonface, or another type of pipefish would be more effective?

 

[mort]

It's strange your banded doesn't. Is it just not interested in them or could it be you have more than it can handle?

Dragon face should eat pods quite happily and you can even have more than one but my personal choice would be blue stripe pipes as they are easy to feed, can be kept in pairs and hunt the rockwork all day long. The only worry is if the new fish tip the balance and reduce the available live food to the detriment of your existing pipe, this is where something like the blue stripes (or even a ruby red scooter) that are easily target fed other foods might help.

 

[living_tribunal]

It's strange your banded doesn't. Is it just not interested in them or could it be you have more than it can handle?

Dragon face should eat pods quite happily and you can even have more than one but my personal choice would be blue stripe pipes as they are easy to feed, can be kept in pairs and hunt the rockwork all day long. The only worry is if the new fish tip the balance and reduce the available live food to the detriment of your existing pipe, this is where something like the blue stripes (or even a ruby red scooter) that are easily target fed other foods might help.

I’m not too concerned about keeping the pipefish fed (well, I am but this guy was added as a worker to keep the amphipod pop I check) as I am them getting the job done.

I spoke to Paul b and he said banded pipefish will mainly eat from the water column, not rocks, which is what I’ve observed. I think the amphipods are too large for him.

The one I added had been at my lfs for about a year and looks like he readily eats frozen cyclops no problem.

I ended up choosing the reliable solution and ordered a yellow wrasse from @Dr. Reef .

I’ll just feed this guy frozen cyclops 5 times a day and then increase my copepod population once the amphipod population dies down.

 

[Bryce M.]

I would think a dragon would be good

 

[living_tribunal]

I would think a dragon would be good

It probably would have been the better route if I were to do this over again.

 

[Bryce M.]

It probably would have been the better route if I were to do this over again.

but I mean if the banded is easy to feed, more pipefish!
(they can live together right? I don't know too much about them)

 

[living_tribunal]

but I mean if the banded is easy to feed, more pipefish!
(they can live together right? I don't know too much about them)

I don’t know much about them either but I kind of don’t want to risk a banded with dragonface. They are pretty dang delicate.

I already feel like I have too many fish for my 65g tank (5 currently and 6 with the wrasse), which is why I just opted for a known and reliable solution for handling an exploding amphipod population.

Apparently banded pipe fish are harder to care for than a few others so I’ll have to figure out the frozen cyclops feeding routine.

My overall hope is that once the canary wrasse cuts down on the amphipods, I’ll actually be able to grow my copepod population for once and then everyone will be happy.

 

[Paul B]

How big are your amphipods? I collect them and they average about 1/4"

If you have actual amphipods just about all fish will eat them.
They are also excellent scavengers, why do you want to eliminate them?

 

[living_tribunal]

How big are your amphipods? I collect them and they average about 1/4"

If you have actual amphipods just about all fish will eat them.
They are also excellent scavengers, why do you want to eliminate them?

They definitely range from about 1/20th of an inch all the way up to 1/2”, I’ve seen some as large as 3/4”.

They run/congregate in interesting packs. You typically see 2 larger 1/4-1/2” with about 20 or so babies at 1/10-1/4”.

There are about 50 locations in my tank where you can see this pack formation taking place. I believe they are maybe babies of the mothers.

According to ipsf, where I sourced the pods, 1 in every 20 of these guys is a mother who will give birth to 10 amphipods every week or so.

 

[Paul B]

That is so cool. I think my fish would take care of therm pretty fast as I keep collecting them in the summer but none of them are half an inch. Those are huge amphipods. A dragon face pipefish would not eat them as they are much to big.

 

[living_tribunal]

That is so cool. I think my fish would take care of therm pretty fast as I keep collecting them in the summer but none of them are half an inch. Those are huge amphipods. A dragon face pipefish would not eat them as they are much to big.

I think that's what's going on with banded pipefish especially. It seems like the hole that they suck through is tiny.

 

[Paul B]

Very tiny. No way for them to eat a 1/2" amphipod.

 

[saltyhog]

Can you get some pictures of your amphipods? I'm starting to wonder if some of them might be isopods. I've never seen 1/2-3/4" amphipods.

 

[living_tribunal]

Can you get some pictures of your amphipods? I'm starting to wonder if some of them might be isopods. I've never seen 1/2-3/4" amphipods.

They are definitely amphipods, I added them myself.

It’s harder to capture the larger ones as they tend to always stay in a hole/under frags.

Here are some pics of the average sized ones in my tank. The one where you can only see the amphipods antannae is an absolute monster. The frag in the picture is about 2” across for reference.

I’ll try and capture better pictures tomorrow. They are so fast which makes it difficult. You can always tell the amphipods by how they move. It’s like they walk on their back legs and curl their body while running.

 

[living_tribunal]

Can you get some pictures of your amphipods? I'm starting to wonder if some of them might be isopods. I've never seen 1/2-3/4" amphipods.

I just coral rxed my wilsoni as they have been demolishing it’s tissue and living in the skeleton. About 50 came out with a few 1/2-3/4”. My wilsoni is 6” for reference.