Dragonface Pipefish Care?

Reefanatic24/7 · Sep 7, 2019

There's a serious lack of information on these very interesting fish. Or maybe I haven't looked hard enough?...

Anyhow, please share your experiences and care tips for all the people out there who dreamed of keeping one of these amazing creatures!

Peach02 · Sep 7, 2019

I'm no expert but my understanding is that they are much the same as mandarin fish, a pain in the butt to keep healthy long term and require extensive copepod populations or specialised feeding stations

Waters · Sep 7, 2019

In my experience they do best in a species tank with other similar fish....seahorses for example. Like horses, they are slow feeders and don't like strong water movement. Other than that, they are pretty easy to care for.

Reefanatic24/7 · Sep 7, 2019

Waters said:
In my experience they do best in a species tank with other similar fish....seahorses for example. Like horses, they are slow feeders and don't like strong water movement. Other than that, they are pretty easy to care for.

Have you ever trained them to eat frozen or dry food?

Waters · Sep 7, 2019

Reefanatic24/7 said:
Have you ever trained them to eat frozen or dry food?

Mine always ate frozen mysis, along with the seahorses. They ate that way right from the beginning.

Saltyanimals · Sep 27, 2019

I added a pair of dragonface to a mature tank and they've settled in for about a week now. They kind of hang out together in one area and occasionally explore, but don't seem to move too far away from that area.

I had a mandarin in the tank for almost two year before losing him. Since I was able to sustain a good size mandarin for that long, I assume I have enough pods...to support a pipefish. However I don't think I've seen them eat. They don't go hunting, they don't pick at rocks. ..what is are they eating? They're suppose to be visual feeders so they must actually see pods otherwise they'd miss the food chance. I know copepods are small and maybe they see pops that I don't, but I hope they're eating something.

They've ignored all kinds of food to the tank. Anyone else see visually your pipes going to town on food?

JP Reef · Sep 27, 2019

I have a pair and I see them take out of the water when I broadcast feed. I fed some newly hatched brine and I could see them picking out of the water column.

Saltyanimals · Sep 28, 2019

I’ve read folks have kept them in mature tanks with little to zero required supplemental feeding. Of course there’s special treat days but like mandarins ... they just kind of eat on their own. Pods etc. anyone have been able to do so without added feeding in recent years ?

Katrina71 · Sep 28, 2019

@Lasse Has kept them. He is extremely knowledgeable. He might be able to give you feeding tips.

SuncrestReef · Sep 28, 2019

I had a dragonface pipefish for 6 months. It only ate live pods, but I have a really good pod population with them breeding in the chaeto in my refugium. Every few days I pull the chaeto out of the fuge and shake it out in my display tank to distribute a bunch of pods. I constantly saw the pipefish sucking up pods off the rocks and sand.

Unfortunately my pipefish got sucked into the overflow when I foolishly took out the weir for cleaning and didn't pay attention when the pumps came back on before I replaced the weir. The pipefish died after getting lodged in the overflow drain valve before I could get it out.

I now have a mandarin goby and it is thriving on all the pods I have. I still feel bad for my mistake that killed the pipefish.

Katrina71 · Sep 28, 2019

These guys are my dream fish. I won't even dare until I'm 100% sure I can manage them. Please post pics!

Lasse · Sep 28, 2019

I have had some of these fish but have not manage the well. Normally it works well for the first months but after that they suddenly disappear - however - I do not think that the problems basically are the question of living food or not. I feed my with freshwater copepods - now living food at all. There is pods in the aquarium but I have a lot of pod eating fish. They normally eat a lot - the two last I had was eating like horses - but suddenly - I could not spot them. After this my 2 years old (in my aquarium) red/white pipe fish stop eating and disappear. With the last specimens - they often was lying on my clams and I was very concerned that if the clams suddenly close their shells (and they do that now and then). My smallest pipe fish (only around 5 cm long (1.5 ") and tiny) still live and seems very healthy. It has been in my aquarium for around 9 months.

Sincerely Lasse

Saltyanimals · Sep 28, 2019

I’ve done the shake the chaeto thing and they they’re not interested. ( which I never had to do with my 2.5in manny). Maybe they are eating and I’m just not seeing it. Other concern is bc they’re visual eaters and copepods are more active at nights ...

However my manny would hunt and peck all day. Manny was one of those no care needed fish. It just auto fed on its own which was what I was expecting the dragon fish to do as well since they both diet on copepods.

I’m trying dragonfish instead of replacing the manny but no i prob wouldnt keep both. I don’t think I can support both pod demands even in a 4ft tank with sump full of chaeto.

Lasse · Sep 28, 2019

I´m sorry to say but - IME - if they do not show any hunt activities or actively seeking food - it could mean problems.

Sincerely Lasse

SuncrestReef · Sep 28, 2019

Katrina71 said:
These guys are my dream fish. I won't even dare until I'm 100% sure I can manage them. Please post pics!

Screen Shot 2019-04-09 at 1.34.45 PM.png

Saltyanimals · Sep 28, 2019

Lasse said:
I´m sorry to say but - IME - if they do not show any hunt activities or actively seeking food - it could mean problems.

Sincerely Lasse

Appreciate all insights.

I ran out and bought red trigger pods and spot fed. They showed some interested maybe because they can see the red pods. I think the other key is to literally kill all flow in the tank so they can come out and hunt. Finally saw they ate. I dump about half of the pod bottle in the chaeto and saved the other half for additional spot feeding. Will see if they will eventually train over to "regular" copepods that's in my chaeto and not the fancy red. lol

Saltyanimals · Oct 2, 2019

Reporting updates to share experience with others that may be interested in these creatures:

My two are never too far apart from each other and often are twisted and wrapped around one another. Very cool. Also noticed that they like the very front corner of the tank for some reason. Maybe the flow is slower under the powerheads (SPS tank) but they like it there so I moved a GSP rock near to serve as their hangout. I added the red pods to the rock hoping for it to also work as a feeding station assuming some of the pods manage to not get eaten and reproduce. Seems to work for now as they're always there and pecking at the GSP which I think might even help them see the pods against the green GSP. ..again back to reading that they're visual eaters.

The new interesting part is my oversized lawnmower decides he likes that new GSP mat and now chooses to hang out there too. ... sometimes right ontop of the dragons. lol Dragons don't seem to care with a fat fish sitting on them. Nothing seems to bother the pipes. Not a great pic, but you get the idea. =)

What I'm not sure of is how MUCH pipes eat. Mannys are constant eaters and could wipe out pods in a tank easily.. wondering how much of an appetite these guys have. I don't plan to spot feed these dragons after the red pods are out hoping the red pod population continues to grow in my chaeto sump.

Saltyanimals · Dec 3, 2019

Decided to update this thread with bad news to share on experiences and lessons learned. I keep Apex logs on everything and lost the 1st one after 5 weeks in the tank. Lost my 2nd last night which is about 11 weeks after introduction.

Hard to say the cause of deaths, but I would speculate it's all food related. The 1st death I wrote off and assumed the 2nd would be fine since it was actively hunting and explored the tank appearing to eat. I did regular chaeto shakes, but did not spot feed since it seemed actively. Given their size and shape also hard to visually tell if it was skinny or not during the almost 3 months in the tank.

=( but .. sharing for others to learn..

(going back to an easier to care for Manny)

Lasse · Dec 3, 2019

It is a difficult species. However mine Las one have been in the tank for around 6 weeks now and is actively feeding frozen fresh water cyclops

Sincerely Lasse

Saltyanimals · Dec 3, 2019

Lasse said:
It is a difficult species. However mine Las one have been in the tank for around 6 weeks now and is actively feeding frozen fresh water cyclops

Sincerely Lasse

That's great @Lasse You seem to be the resident expert on these difficult species so I'm sure they're in good hands. I was hopefully when mine lasted over 2 months.. good luck!