First pipes

Squishie89 · Nov 25, 2015

Naiad said:
Well he just died. Started jerking erratically and then rolled onto his back. No other external signs other than his colors got very bright like he was in a lot of distress. He also just stopped looking at things and stared into the distance. Water parameters are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate between 10 and 20. Temp 78.3. Sg 1.025. No real changes all other livestock fine. Plenty of pods. They are visible on glass and he was taking frozen before he stopped eating 2 days ago. Will be forgoing more pipes until I can figure out what happened. The next ones will be put in qt now that I know I can harvest pods from the refugium in a tight spot.

Oh wow, I am so sorry. That is kind of crazy. Might want to ask @Humblefish about what may have happened and any help with QT-ing your next pipefish.

Humblefish · Nov 26, 2015

Seahorses are usually disease-free because most of them are aquacultured these days. However, unless I'm mistaken, most (if not all) pipefish are still wild collected. So that means they are exposed to diseases the same as any other wild caught fish.

I know seahorses/pipefish don't handle copper or even Chloroquine that well. Not sure about hypo; but you should still be able to do tank transfer method if you suspect ich. A public aquarium I advise uses both metronidazole and praziquantel (dewormers) on wild caught seahorses.

FishRForMe · Apr 20, 2016

vlangel said:
I would try Hikari mysis. They are definitely smaller than other brands and we're the first mysis my juvenile seahorses would eat. You might be able to shave or chop mysis also but then occasionally pipes will turn their noses up at it because the eye stocks are not intact.

I feed my dragon face the Hikari mysis, but I guess he's not a baby. I've only had him a month or so and he is about 6" long. How can you tell males from females?

vlangel · Apr 21, 2016

FishRForMe said:
I feed my dragon face the Hikari mysis, but I guess he's not a baby. I've only had him a month or so and he is about 6" long. How can you tell males from females?

I am not sure if it is the same with dragon face pipes but with my banded flagfin you look at their snouts and the males have more of a ridged bump. Also with some pipes you can see a bit of a pouch or flat area where they carry the eggs. These are things I have read on fusejaw.com but I can't tell pipes apart.