Blue stripe care...

JonoB · Apr 27, 2019

So I was just at the LFS buying some fish for my 60 gallon cube. While there, a guy walks in and just drops off buckets of fish and walks out. The girl working at the LFS said that there wasn't anyway his pipefish was going to survive in their tanks so she asked if I wanted to take it home and give it a shot.

So here I am, with a pipefish.

I have a quarantine tank set up and put it in there with the firefish I got. Last tank I didn't quarantine anything and had lots of problems, so this go round I'm QTing everything I can. I understand that the pipefish need copepods, so what's my best bet here? Keep it in QT and hope it will eat some frozen foods?

I have copepods EVERYWHERE in my DT but like I said, want to QT stuff. I also have a small 5 gallon set up with live rock and sand that has nothing else in it for now. Was planning on using it to QT snails and such, but maybe I can use that for the time being? I wasn't sure if copper will be too harsh on the pipefish. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling here, but basically I guess I'm asking:

Do I need to do anything special while QTing him or just treat him like any other fish.

Peace River · Apr 27, 2019

Light frozen food that stays in the water column for a while can supplement the diet, but I would still recommend some live food that stays in the water column. Good luck!

Mudder · Apr 28, 2019

You don't want to use copper on a pipefish

CP...is an option
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

TTM(Tank transfer method) or hypo..work as well

Pipefish can be tough to get to eat frozen so while in QT I would feed some type of live food

I use vitamin enriched brine shimp,pods from my refugium or pods from a bottle I pick up at LFS

Thomashtom · Apr 28, 2019

Hi i have pipefish and they are doing ok. I was told the same thing about copper and i dont know about CP either. Because of the hard skin i was told that they are not susceptible to many diseases.

JonoB · Apr 28, 2019

Thanks for the advice guys.

Don't want to speak too soon, but the little guy is eating some frozen mysis so I assume that's a good sign. I also have a bottle of pods that I have squirted in there with a pipette, and he grabbed those. So at least on the food front, I should be able to get through the QT process, whichever I go with.