How to keep Pipefish

[GaspingGurami]

Been seeing these cute creatures show up at LFS but dare not try for fear I cannot get the food they need.

However, last night, I committed to a couple of the bigger yellow-coloured ones at Y618.

I figure these bigger ones can feed on tubifex and monia, but I might be mistaken.

Don't seem to be able to google up any info on these, except for the brackish/marine ones.

Can anybody advise me please?

[ranmasatome]

use brine shrimp. The ones i used to have ONLY and ONLY eat live feed....

[benny]

Yeah. I head they are difficult to feed too.

Cheers,

[GaspingGurami]

Have tried feeding mine slow sinking micro pellet, live tubifex and live monia so far. No interest in the first, interested but not feeding on tubifex, feeds on monia, but I can count the number of times it scores a hit, sucking in the individual swimmers.

At this intake rate, it'll probably starve to death. They're constantly foraging, poking their noses into the moss etc, but don't seem to suck up anything.

I'll try live brine shrimp next. Should I wash the brine shrimp with tapwater before before dropping into the tank? (Considering that it is in saltwater)

Thanks for the answers.

Have a blessed year ahead y'all

[ranmasatome]

oh...you can also go buy 100 malayan shrimp and dump all of it into your tank.. these pipefishes are very very good shrimp hunters..

[ranmasatome]

that also depends on the size of your pipe fish...forgot to mention

[BFG]

What about Cyclopeeze? Comes in freeze dried version in a can.

[stormhawk]

They don't seem to like inert food. You'll have to swish the cyclopeeze in the water to make them *think* its food.

For freshwater pipefishes, they'll take ONLY live foods most of the time. Use baby brine shrimp or adult BS for the larger individuals, tubifex worms and even daphnia will suffice for these fellas. The larger species may on occasions take even young guppy fry. Young shrimplets will almost always disappear in a tank with a pipefish and little cover for the shrimplets.

[avant]

you can either use a mini net to sieve out the brine shrimps or alternatively, use a straw to siphon out the shrimps.. at least won't get too much salt solution into your main tank..

[GaspingGurami]

Didn't manage to get live brine shrimp last night, but Azmi was kind to sell me a bag of monia. I'll keep trying, hoping to see if they can be fooled to taking dead food.

Mine is 4-6 inches long. The small, black 1 inch short fellas didn't live too long in my tank in the past as they didn't eat anything. Hopefully, this time, these big ones will live. It is very encouraging to see them peck at a skipping monia, and this morning, they all rise to inspect the micro pellets I put at the surface althogh none ventured a taste.

They seem to be the favourite mount of the yamatoes these days, and they'd buck and roll just to dispel these chaps. Maybe my batch of shrimps came from America -- they prefer meats (monia, tubifex, bloodworms) than algae and like to ride horses. Haha.

I'm just fascinated by fishes tht hover

[Justikanz]

Are your shrimps breeding? The pipefish might be able to feed on the yamato larvae? If so, then you can actually add more shrimps...

[GaspingGurami]

My shrimps are not breeding Had a recent wipeout so probably they'll take time before the remnant population decide to get fertile again. Perhaps I should look to getting 100 malayans.

Squirted some TMG directly, without pre-mixing with water yesterday morning. Ya I know... the instructions say mix first, but I was lazy yesterday. The cloud of TMG hit one of them and half hour later, I'm preparing a dried specimen.

Dropped in a cube of frozen daphnia in the evening.... The remaining ones decide that the sinking stuff is food and start to feed.

This morning at first light, I see them rise to the surface when I turn on the night-light, so I dropped a pinch of crushed micro-pellets. They start to skim the surface!

I think I can now safely say they take pellets and frozen food.