How many Bluestripe Pipefish?

[schleppey]

Hello pipers. I am looking for someone with experience that can help me with how group dynamics in bluestripes work out. Primarily, I am looking for someone with experience to give me the green or red light on keeping 4 bluestripe pipefish together.

Backstory: I enjoy working with exotic fish and have been looking to add some Bluestripe Pipefish to my life. I have been checking my LFS's meticulously and I have only ever seen 1 lone bluestripe for $60, no thank you. That puts me in a position where I feel I have to order offline, taking the random grab bag of male/female and quality which is not ideal, but seems my best option if I want them anytime soon. My research has led my to very mixed results on what the "correct" number of bluestripes is to keep them happy.

Current Situation: After officially shopping around today, Live Aquaria had them priced at $28. They have a deal where you get free shipping if you spend $100 on livestock. Obviously that tempts me to get 4 rather, than the original pair I imagined I would grab from a LFS that never existed. I sadly have equal or more trust in Live Aquaria, than my LFS's when it comes to fish health. I always take the animals health as my top priority, I would not want to risk them.

I have heard some pipefish species can have same sex fighting to the death, that is one of the main things I would like confirmation on with the bluestripes. I would like to have 4 coexisting as a group yet I am obviously not going to subject these fish to gladiator combat. Let me know what you guys think about all of this if you wish, thanks

 

[Ranjib]

Its a stretch i think. How big is your tank? They eat micro fauna, hence can be hard. This is assuming they can be kept together (i have only seen them as individual in tanks). Lets see what the community says.. i have never kept them :-(

 

[schleppey]

I have made the ultimate decision to play it safe and listen to enough people say... 1 Male per aquarium. I'm going to go with a self made pair from a website that sells males and females separately it looks like.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I have made the ultimate decision to play it safe and listen to enough people say... 1 Male per aquarium. I'm going to go with a self made pair from a website that sells males and females separately it looks like.

Will tag @Paul B see if he has any knowledge to add.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Males will fight to the death but can be kept with multiple females. I kept one male and 3 female Bluestripes in a 30-40 cube. They ignored the Janss and Banded pipes.

My LFS ordered 20 and let me pick and choose. There were only 3 females out of the 20.

 

[Katie M]

I would agree that it would be one male with multiple females. Have you gotten them yet? It would be interesting to hear your experience with them. I have a pair that I've had for about a month now - absolutely fascinating fish!

 

[Tajaba]

From my experience, It is better to keep just 2 in any size tank. The females are insanely territorial and will rather die than give up her mate (ahem, probably stockholm syndrome). My pair is almost 2 years old now and they spawn regularly. The male is much more timid than the female and usually stays in 1 place.

ps: my tank is 800 gallons, I do not think they care about size. The lady really doesn't like b**ches eyeing her man.

edit: When I first started, no one told me this either and I bought 1 male with multiple females. Guess where the other females are now......