Need info/care on many banded pipefish

[nanomania]

These pipe fishes are available with my lfs. I saw online, and nauplii are good enough for them with some copepods. I have frozen mysis and cyclopeeze too.

Current setup is a 15g tank with sand and rocks, and some macros like featger caulerps and red macro.

I have a coral banded shrimp in there too. No fishes.

Can i house it? Howmany can i keep together? Wud it eat molly fry too?

 

[nanomania]

@PaulB are u still breeding them?

 

[nanomania]

Please help

 

[nanomania]

@rayjay can u help?

 

[vlangel]

I am not a pipefish keeper but I believe pipefish are similar to seahorses in that they mastigate their food when they eat and a lot is wasted out their gills. Also I believe that pipefish like seahorses are vulnerable to bacterial infections and bacteria flourishes on excess food particals. That being the case, I would think a 15 gallon is small for more pipefish than perhaps just 1 and that may not even be a good idea. The rule for seahorses is 30 gallons for 2 seahorses.

 

[nanomania]

I am not a pipefish keeper but I believe pipefish are similar to seahorses in that they mastigate their food when they eat and a lot is wasted out their gills. Also I believe that pipefish like seahorses are vulnerable to bacterial infections and bacteria flourishes on excess food particals. That being the case, I would think a 15 gallon is small for more pipefish than perhaps just 1 and that may not even be a good idea. The rule for seahorses is 30 gallons for 2 seahorses.

I just got a mandarin, sonplanning to add only 1 pipe. Also jave a coral banded shrimp, wud it kill the pipe?

 

[LetItReef]

IMO, if u want to keep a pipefish in a 15g, a Bluestripe pipefish will be good but with a coral banded I would not do it.

 

[rayjay]

@rayjay can u help?

Sorry, but I don't have much experience with pipefish and what experience I did have was disastrous.
As mentioned, I wouldn't have a coral banded in with pipefish either. Not even with seahorses. They are terrors on stilts IMO.

 

[mfinn]

I just got a mandarin, sonplanning to add only 1 pipe. Also jave a coral banded shrimp, wud it kill the pipe?

Sounds like a recipe for disaster keeping a multibanded pipefish and a mandarin in a 15.
Since both are pod eaters and hunt all day, each one by themself would exhaust the pod supply pretty fast.

 

[shrimped]

If they are not trained onto frozen food I would start by purchasing either live Artemia (bribe shrimp) locally or buy a little vial of brine shrimp eggs because it’s a lot cheaper and you know what food the brine shrimp has eaten. I recommend the San Francisco Bay brand because they have a pretty high hatch rate so you don’t have to go through all that decapsulating process. A small air pump and (washed) water bottle is pretty much all you need to hatch brine shrimp eggs. If you want to raise them (not required) I would recommend soy bean powder and activated yeast as food but I won’t go into raising them much further since it is a quite complex process.

During this time I would also separate the coral banded shrimp and the pipefish. If it is a blue banded coral shrimp or Zanzibar boxer shrimp it’s fine.

I would also start planning on a upgrade. A 35g is big enough.

I would feed the pipefish the newly hatched baby brine shrimp instead of adults because they have a higher nutrient value. Turn off all the pumps for about an hour so there is no water movement (makes it easier for pipefish to eat). If the pipefish doesn’t look interested don’t panic.

I had a not trained blue stripe pipefish in my old 29g along with a colony of sun coral and a trained green mandarin. They were perfectly fine without much pods. Just feed their choice of food which mine were mini mysis soaked in garlic and selcon.
My blue stripe never seemed to eat any of the live brine shrimp at first until he grew much fatter than the time of purchase. Note that my tank had extremely small population of pods due to the mandarin. After a few weeks I would mix the baby brine shrimp with frozen baby brine shrimp or cyclops and then mix the frozen cyclops to frozen adult brine then frozen adult brine to frozen mysis and so on. Good luck on your pipefish!

 

[nanomania]

Sounds like a recipe for disaster keeping a multibanded pipefish and a mandarin in a 15.
Since both are pod eaters and hunt all day, each one by themself would exhaust the pod supply pretty fast.

Iv added a toms hatch n feeder, plus brine hatchery outside.. will feed nauplii

 

[nanomania]

If they are not trained onto frozen food I would start by purchasing either live Artemia (bribe shrimp) locally or buy a little vial of brine shrimp eggs because it’s a lot cheaper and you know what food the brine shrimp has eaten. I recommend the San Francisco Bay brand because they have a pretty high hatch rate so you don’t have to go through all that decapsulating process. A small air pump and (washed) water bottle is pretty much all you need to hatch brine shrimp eggs. If you want to raise them (not required) I would recommend soy bean powder and activated yeast as food but I won’t go into raising them much further since it is a quite complex process.

During this time I would also separate the coral banded shrimp and the pipefish. If it is a blue banded coral shrimp or Zanzibar boxer shrimp it’s fine.

I would also start planning on a upgrade. A 35g is big enough.

I would feed the pipefish the newly hatched baby brine shrimp instead of adults because they have a higher nutrient value. Turn off all the pumps for about an hour so there is no water movement (makes it easier for pipefish to eat). If the pipefish doesn’t look interested don’t panic.

I had a not trained blue stripe pipefish in my old 29g along with a colony of sun coral and a trained green mandarin. They were perfectly fine without much pods. Just feed their choice of food which mine were mini mysis soaked in garlic and selcon.
My blue stripe never seemed to eat any of the live brine shrimp at first until he grew much fatter than the time of purchase. Note that my tank had extremely small population of pods due to the mandarin. After a few weeks I would mix the baby brine shrimp with frozen baby brine shrimp or cyclops and then mix the frozen cyclops to frozen adult brine then frozen adult brine to frozen mysis and so on. Good luck on your pipefish!

Yes, gonna feed nauplii.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Brine shrimp are not the most nutritious item. It would be like a person surviving on ramen. Even if you could produce enough to keep all 3 fulfilled i dont think this will work.

In a 15 gallon your very limited on how much rock will fit. The rock is where the fish feed from. Putting more rock would reduce water volume lending to nutrient issues.
Also to safely feed brine as the staple you will need multiple cultures.
1 started day x
Another day y
Another day z
And so forth.

As an example why this is important, herp not fish, i had 4 fruit fly cultures i had 3 invaded by mites and fail. If i didnt have a fourth i might have lost the baby tree frogs. While i awaited a delivery.

 

[shrimped]

Brine shrimp are not the most nutritious item. It would be like a person surviving on ramen. Even if you could produce enough to keep all 3 fulfilled i dont think this will work.

In a 15 gallon your very limited on how much rock will fit. The rock is where the fish feed from. Putting more rock would reduce water volume lending to nutrient issues.
Also to safely feed brine as the staple you will need multiple cultures.
1 started day x
Another day y
Another day z
And so forth.

As an example why this is important, herp not fish, i had 4 fruit fly cultures i had 3 invaded by mites and fail. If i didnt have a fourth i might have lost the baby tree frogs. While i awaited a delivery.

Yes brine shrimp is definitely one of the lowest source of nutrient you can feed your fish but soaking it in selcon and garlic is enough for about a month.

 

[nanomania]

Yes brine shrimp is definitely one of the lowest source of nutrient you can feed your fish but soaking it in selcon and garlic is enough for about a month.

I was reading a few articles, where they say that if fed in first 12hrs after hatching, its got yolk attached. Yes im trying to get it eating frozen food.

 

[nanomania]

#PaulB @PaulB need some help with your diy feeder. I made one.

 

[rayjay]

FWIW, brine shrimp nauplii OR adults are basically only really deficient in the fatty acid profile, especially once the egg yolk is consumed. Protein levels from GSL cysts will run in the 50% up to 62% levels. ANY deficiency can be corrected by using the appropriate enrichment for the appropriate time interval. For nauplii the best results will come from two 12 hour stages with new water and new enrichment for each stage (starting after they reach the Instar II stage as they don't have developed digestive tract until then). As the artemia mature the time interval will go down significantly and will be gut loaded in a few hours, with assimilation occurring with just a couple more hours.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e0p.htm#b11-4.4.2.7. Enrichment of ongrown Artemia
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732....1. Nutritional properties of ongrown Artemia
I culture artemia in 26g Rubbermaid containers and I feed them greenwater made with powdered spirulina from Brine Shrimp Direct and adding Schizochytrium (Algamac 3050 from Bio-Marine Inc Aquafauna) so that they always have enrichment assimilated into their bodies, and then I just gut load them for use a few hours in the Algamac only for even higher DHA levels.
DHA cannot be produced by the pipefish and seahorses so they need it in their foods. Egg yolk sacs while being high in fatty acids, do not provide much if any DHA.
If you are REALLY interested in factual information about artemia you can go to Section 4 Artemia at http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/W3732E00.HTM
If you are feeding frozen foods, IMO it's a waste of time and money to soak these in enrichments as most of the enrichment is merely a coating that will wash off when food is placed into the display tank, decreasing the quality of the water.
If you soak flake food, it WILL absorb moisture to a degree, but using thawed frozen foods which already are high in moisture will prevent much of anything to soak in.
A little better choice would be to soak freeze dried foods in enrichment but it still won't compare with proper enrichment of live artemia.
IMO, garlic is NOT an enrichment but merely something that might stimulate feeding response in some fish. Not needed if the fish have no problems with appetite.

 

[nanomania]

FWIW, brine shrimp nauplii OR adults are basically only really deficient in the fatty acid profile, especially once the egg yolk is consumed. Protein levels from GSL cysts will run in the 50% up to 62% levels. ANY deficiency can be corrected by using the appropriate enrichment for the appropriate time interval. For nauplii the best results will come from two 12 hour stages with new water and new enrichment for each stage (starting after they reach the Instar II stage as they don't have developed digestive tract until then). As the artemia mature the time interval will go down significantly and will be gut loaded in a few hours, with assimilation occurring with just a couple more hours.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e0p.htm#b11-4.4.2.7. Enrichment of ongrown Artemia
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732....1. Nutritional properties of ongrown Artemia
I culture artemia in 26g Rubbermaid containers and I feed them greenwater made with powdered spirulina from Brine Shrimp Direct and adding Schizochytrium (Algamac 3050 from Bio-Marine Inc Aquafauna) so that they always have enrichment assimilated into their bodies, and then I just gut load them for use a few hours in the Algamac only for even higher DHA levels.
DHA cannot be produced by the pipefish and seahorses so they need it in their foods. Egg yolk sacs while being high in fatty acids, do not provide much if any DHA.
If you are REALLY interested in factual information about artemia you can go to Section 4 Artemia at http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/W3732E00.HTM
If you are feeding frozen foods, IMO it's a waste of time and money to soak these in enrichments as most of the enrichment is merely a coating that will wash off when food is placed into the display tank, decreasing the quality of the water.
If you soak flake food, it WILL absorb moisture to a degree, but using thawed frozen foods which already are high in moisture will prevent much of anything to soak in.
A little better choice would be to soak freeze dried foods in enrichment but it still won't compare with proper enrichment of live artemia.
IMO, garlic is NOT an enrichment but merely something that might stimulate feeding response in some fish. Not needed if the fish have no problems with appetite.

Where to buy Algamac 3050 from Bio-Marine Inc Aquafauna from?

 

[shrimped]

Also heard nutramar ova is appetizing to picky eaters such as pipes but not 100% sure

 

[rayjay]

I bought my 3050 direct from Aquafauna but there is a minimum size order and I forget just how much it was now. Probably not practical for your purposes but I used to use a heck of a lot of it. It has actually been replaced now by Algamac 3050 DHA 10.
Basically, it is an algae called schizochytrium .
You might contact Brine Shrimp Direct to see if they will sell you some as they use it in mixes they make up for sale for fish foods they sell.
You can order the actual Algamac 3050 DHA 10 from Dan Underwood of Seahorse Source but the packages are only 50g which doesn't last too long for my purposes but might be OK for you to order multiple packs at a time.
Top of the list on this page: http://seahorsesource.com/?wpsc_product_category=enrichments