Getting a Dragon Pipefish to Eat

ca1ore · Oct 9, 2018

Traded a frag and the tradee says it has red bugs. Well, I don't see them anywhere in my display (and I have looked) but I purchased a dragon face Pipefish. Plenty of pods in the display, but not so many in the QT tank (even though it has live rock). I'm hatching out a batch of brine, but so far none of the frozen I've tried has elicited a feeding response (including my stash of Nutramar ova). Any clever suggestions?

mtraylor · Oct 9, 2018

Your going to have to buy live pods for him to hunt and eat or put him in the aquarium.

kirbuno · Oct 9, 2018

I agree with the live pods. Mine does respond to and eats the Nutramar ova as well, but they have seen them presented to them multiple times. It can't hurt to keep presenting a small amount of the frozen just to get him used to seeing them.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 9, 2018

Live pods for sure to get started. He should be able to eat mysis too though. Try to get him going for those. Maybe use similar tips for feeding seahorses

ca1ore · Oct 9, 2018

I've ordered some pods, have been hatching out some brine (though they seem uninterested so far), and continue to offer a broad range of small frozen foods, Hopefully this gets them through QT. I'm less concerned once they get to the main display, but I've too much invested in my fish population to even consider short circuiting QT. I do have some mini-mysis (even smaller than the hikari stuff) that I intend to try.

vetteguy53081 · Oct 9, 2018

Lots of pods and/or baby brine shrimp. Very finicky specimens

User1 · Oct 9, 2018

Have you tried any live blood or black worms or other live food?

code4 · Oct 9, 2018

Paul B has had success with them. He uses his feeder. If you have lights over your QT and just put the baby brine in it I imagine they are swimming to the top. Pauls feeder, or a light change, would get them to the lower level of your QT longer. The pipefish might like them better that way. And sometimes it just takes a little time. Just my thoughts.

Shelley

vetteguy53081 · Oct 9, 2018

saf1 said:
Have you tried any live blood or black worms or other live food?

Although the movement of Blackworms do attract attention, I despise them in a marine tank as should they go uneaten will quickly decay and foul the tank water causing changes in parameters quickly

User1 · Oct 9, 2018

vetteguy53081 said:
Although the movement of Blackworms do attract attention, I despise them in a marine tank as should they go uneaten will quickly decay and foul the tank water causing changes in parameters quickly

Valid point. I'm not really a person who feeds them because, well, that whole terrestrial thing. Sort of like feeding Tangs Romaine lettuce or broccoli. I'm sure the worms have some form of protein in them. Lord knows we all learned in Cub Scouts and Survival School to eat them

In any case I was just mentioning it to entice or see if maybe the movement like you suggested.

GoldeneyeRet · Oct 9, 2018

vetteguy53081 said:
Although the movement of Blackworms do attract attention, I despise them in a marine tank as should they go uneaten will quickly decay and foul the tank water causing changes in parameters quickly

Lol an uneaten blackworm... I would see bigfoot before an uneaten blackworm. They dont last a second in my tank.

maroun.c · Oct 10, 2018

either feed live pods, or just take a handfull of caulerpa/cheato from our fuge if you got one and shake or just place in QT to transfer pods, repeat every few days.
you could have added some sponges to sump or fuge to seed with pods and move 1-2 everyday to QT (no moving back to tank after tehy touched QT water eventhough theres no copper)
a few small stones would also have pods to seed the QT.

oceanrider · Oct 11, 2018

Many good advice here. The key is to consider all. You don’t know which will work

I’m this is what I did with my pipefish. He is multibanded pipe. So they are easier to entice than dragonpipes

First placed him in my dispkay abd he ate only the live copepods. Would not touch mysis.

I had a tailspot blenny it for algae control. And it would come to my pipette when I am feeding frozen mysis. Well. Pretty soon the pipefish learned by watching as he saw the blenny go after mysis. He then switched to mysis. And now even eats mysis from forceps or directly from pipette.

I would mix a little bit of baby brine shrimp with copepods and a few ova and mini mysis. Squirt a little in front of the dragon. Hopefully you also have another fish like a blenny that will go for those. Don’t have many liverock in QT. Becasue you want to be able to catch the blenny once the dragon starts eating.

Remember to feed low. Target feed him. As they crawl on rocks and are bottom feeders

This worked for me. And once he associates pipette with food. You would decrease copepods abs brine shrimp and increase frozen mysis

Angel_Anthias lover · Oct 11, 2018

Maybe live mysis shrimp might entice him to eat frozen mysis shrimp, I've seen it for sale online , but that's in the UK and don't think it might be the most sustainable option as I'm not sure you can hatch or raise them easily, but just thought I'd suggest, and good luck getting him to eat, I'm sure he'll (or she'll ) come round to aquarium foods with some time

GoldeneyeRet · Nov 11, 2018

How's the pipefish doing?

User1 · Nov 11, 2018

Also don't you have some wrasses? I thought they would make short work of those pests. Or maybe that is certain types.

ca1ore · Nov 12, 2018

I got them eating newly hatched brine over the course of QT. Seemed OK, so put them into the big tank where I have a pretty good pod population even with the leopards ..... haven’t seen them since though so jury is out still.

GoldeneyeRet · Nov 12, 2018

I hope they are doing ok in there. I've been wanting one or two for my tank but I'm not sure how they would do.

Hopefully they turn up fat and happy!