Who's got a pipefish? Would you recommend?

[NJBillyV]

So here the deal, running a Reefer 170 (34g) reef tank w/ medium flow. I have YWG and Firefish in there now. I plan to add a Yellow Tang, Tail Spot Blenny, clown or two, and Black Cap Basslet and normal CUC.

My concerns are how delicate they seem to be AND feeding pods, which I've never done. I'm experienced with running a reef tank so I'm not a nubie, but this one concerns me. I really want one, or two!!

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[living_tribunal]

I have one, I've had it for a little over a year. The answer depends on what pipe fish you plan to get.

Most pipefish are notoriously difficult to keep, even harder than mandarins. While they will consume many pods, they primarily eat from the column in my experience. I got lucky and my old fart likes hand fed cyclops. Most banded pipe fish are VERY picky and take ages to get onto frozen foods. Regardless, I culture about 30,000 pods for him a week.

You also need to be very cautious about flow and competing fish as they are very very weak swimmers.

Tbh, I wouldn't recommend a pipefish to 90% of the reefers on here. You could maybe try an easier pipe fish such as a Dragonface.

 

[NJBillyV]

I definitely plan on a Dragonface as I've read they are the easiest to keep.

So what's the deal with feeding them pods, 30,000 a week, did I read that right. How do you do that and how do you feed them the pods. Do you just keep dumping store bought pods into the tank and he finds and eats them?

 

[fishlover1478]

I have one, I've had it for a little over a year. The answer depends on what pipe fish you plan to get.

Most pipefish are notoriously difficult to keep, even harder than mandarins. While they will consume many pods, they primarily eat from the column in my experience. I got lucky and my old fart likes hand fed cyclops. Most banded pipe fish are VERY picky and take ages to get onto frozen foods. Regardless, I culture about 30,000 pods for him a week.

You also need to be very cautious about flow and competing fish as they are very very weak swimmers.

Tbh, I wouldn't recommend a pipefish to 90% of the reefers on here. You could maybe try an easier pipe fish such as a Dragonface.

how do you culture 30,000 pods a week?

 

[homer1475]

So here the deal, running a Reefer 170 (34g) reef tank w/ medium flow. I have YWG and Firefish in there now. I plan to add a Yellow Tang, Tail Spot Blenny, clown or two, and Black Cap Basslet and normal CUC.

Not considering the tang needs at minimum a 100G tank, the rest of your stock list is plenty without the pipefish.

 

[living_tribunal]

how do you culture 30,000 pods a week?

I run 3 external cultures.

 

[living_tribunal]

I definitely plan on a Dragonface as I've read they are the easiest to keep.

So what's the deal with feeding them pods, 30,000 a week, did I read that right. How do you do that and how do you feed them the pods. Do you just keep dumping store bought pods into the tank and he finds and eats them?

I culture that many because I have many fish that are heavy pod consumers. Most banded pipe fish are not like mine, he is very old and only eats frozen cyclops. The pipe fish you get has a 99% chance not being like mine. They really like free-form pods like tigers since they can pick them from the column. A dragonface will consume more pods from the rocks so you would do best with tisbe/apex, any apocacyclops really, with an abundant amount of tigers as well.

I run 3 external cultures for tisbe, apex, and tiger. And dump the 30,000 in every week or maybe 10 days if I'm lazy. Purchasing the pods would be far too expensive.

Many hatch brine for their pipefish with great success as well. I would err on the side of caution and plan on doing both pods and brine if you want to really guarantee this fishes success.

This is purely anecdotal but I'd say certain types of pipefish are among the hardest fish you can keep in a tank. They don't consume as many pods as mandarins but are far pickier eaters, they can hardly swim and are prone to being bullied, get washed by flow if you have a sps tank, and many other hurdles you'll have to get by. Proceed with caution and don't be another statistic.

 

[NJBillyV]

Not considering the tang needs at minimum a 100G tank, the rest of your stock list is plenty without the pipefish.

Oh I am fully aware that he needs a much bigger tank. He's just there to eat algae until he gets too big, at that point I'll find him a nice new home (a BRS idea that I really like). I plan to get the smallest one I can find.

My local LFS has a Reefer 170 with two Dragonface's in it and every time I go there I just can't take my eyes off them. The way they look, the way the move, the way they crawl through the rocks, everything, totally love them.

At the same time I do not want to cause harm to any fish, so I'm inquiring with people who have them to decide.

I'm still curious how you feed them the pods.

 

[Neoma]

I have one, I've had it for a little over a year. The answer depends on what pipe fish you plan to get.

Most pipefish are notoriously difficult to keep, even harder than mandarins. While they will consume many pods, they primarily eat from the column in my experience. I got lucky and my old fart likes hand fed cyclops. Most banded pipe fish are VERY picky and take ages to get onto frozen foods. Regardless, I culture about 30,000 pods for him a week.

You also need to be very cautious about flow and competing fish as they are very very weak swimmers.

Tbh, I wouldn't recommend a pipefish to 90% of the reefers on here. You could maybe try an easier pipe fish such as a Dragonface.

Very interested in culturing pods!! I have a80 gl tank 2 months old now, 2nd time around- first reef tank was 150 for 18 years!!

 

[fishlover1478]

@living_tribunal would your pods culturing setup be similar to the Poseidon's reef system kit?

 

[Salemsoul]

So here the deal, running a Reefer 170 (34g) reef tank w/ medium flow. I have YWG and Firefish in there now. I plan to add a Yellow Tang, Tail Spot Blenny, clown or two, and Black Cap Basslet and normal CUC.

My concerns are how delicate they seem to be AND feeding pods, which I've never done. I'm experienced with running a reef tank so I'm not a nubie, but this one concerns me. I really want one, or two!!

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

So yes I do. From sea horse savvy. She has aquarium conditioned ones and even captive breed the small blue line pipefish. But with that wish list and tang?, blenny, two clowns. I’d advice against a pipefish or pair of pipefish. If you’ve never had pods, fed pods, purchased or cultured amphipods or copepods; again I would recommend steering clear with how many fish you intend on having. You can certainly cater your tank to have pipefish and set your sump up with a refugium to maintain a healthy population. They can also eat frozen brine shrimp

 

[living_tribunal]

@living_tribunal would your pods culturing setup be similar to the Poseidon's reef system kit?

Sure is, I recommend those for people just starting out with their pod cultures. You can definitely recreate them for much cheaper but you get everything you need with the kits.

I've written about my cultures in a previous thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/so-mandarins-their-pod-consumption-is-no-joke.735224/page-4

 

[ThRoewer]

Bluestripes are easy to keep and quickly take frozen mysis or brine shrimp. One of my female bluestripes has a little issue judging sizes or she is thinking she's a trumpetfish, always attempting to eat the krill I feed to the marine bettas...

 

[vlangel]

Ocean Rider raises captive bred banded pipes. I would recommend them.

 

[GlassMunky]

As someone currently with 2 pipefish in a 210G tank, and previously with a breeding pair, I’d say that adding them to a tank small is seriously pushing it. Even in the 210 they are constantly hunting and eating and I regularly add more pods along with feeding them frozen zooplankton.
Food requirements aside, A tank that small doesn’t really give them much room to move around.
all that said, they can handle higher flow without any issue, mine will sometimes swim directly in front of the MP40WQD I think just for fun. If they don’t want to be in the higher flow they can easily maneuver to somewhere else.
Other fish pay them no mind, and they seem completely unaffected by what the other fish do, even quickly dashing around.

 

[ThRoewer]

Ocean Rider raises captive bred banded pipes. I would recommend them.

Those are good for a lower flow tank, ideally a macro algae biotope but not necessarily suited well for a high flow SPS reef tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

As someone currently with 2 pipefish in a 210G tank, and previously with a breeding pair, I’d say that adding them to a tank small is seriously pushing it. Even in the 210 they are constantly hunting and eating and I regularly add more pods along with feeding them frozen zooplankton.
Food requirements aside, A tank that small doesn’t really give them much room to move around.
all that said, they can handle higher flow without any issue, mine will sometimes swim directly in front of the MP40WQD I think just for fun. If they don’t want to be in the higher flow they can easily maneuver to somewhere else.
Other fish pay them no mind, and they seem completely unaffected by what the other fish do, even quickly dashing around.

I kept Bluestripes in 20 and even 10 gallon tanks though in such smaller tanks you will have to make sure to feed enough. The good thing about Bluestripes is that they quickly learn to take frozen food (brine shrimp, mysis) and therefore don't have to rely (completely) on pods. It is of course always best to have pods for them in the tank (everyone with Pipefish should maintain a Tigriopus culture somewhere) but for that a large refugium is more important than a large tank.
Bluestripes are actually cleanerfish and as such rarely attacked or harmed by other fish. Though, they may be bothered by fish who feel an itch and want it taken care of...