[gmaniac]

Hi All

Jut came back from an LFS and saw some pipefish in a large planted tank community aquarium. I was impressed with the way they looke floating in and out of the plants.. really cool
The tank has some livebearers, tetras, small angels, shrimp, and was about 150 G in size

The pipefish seemed to have pretty small mouths and I dont think the would do any harm to tetras and the like

anyone have any experience with these fish in a planted tank? I dont think they are brackish fish, but I may be wrong

thanks

GM

 

[nonamethefish]

The main problem I see would be getting the small live food required past the greedy tetras. They are said to be delicate. If I ever tried them it would be in a tank dedicated to them only.

 

[claus]

Hi gmaniac !

They are so beautiful, but I'm no sure they are really fresh water fish. They are related with seahorses, I think they should be Brackish fish. A few years ago I got 5 of them for my fresh water planted aquarium, all of them dead. Some were caught in the filter intake, and the rest of them dead in the following weeks . I had never seen them eating any food, I have heard they take his food in a special way: filtering it from the water but I'm not sure about it.

I think the care that i gave them was not the right care for them, so I strongly recommend you to do some research about the specie you want to keep, I tried to get some information for you searching in Internet but all the species that I found were marine fish, sorry.


Best Regards !!!

 

[Aaron]

Some pipefish are true freshwater inhabitants while others are coastal fish that need a little bit of salt. I have kept Microphis brachyurus (which I believe is the pipefish you saw as it seems to be the one I see most often when they are available) These fish did not need salt and were quite hardy. I fed them baby guppies, mollies and white clouds along with brine shrimp and daphnia. I think they could manage small neons too. They are extremely slow moving and not strong swimmers so strong currents are not a good idea. Due to this, I'd recommend keeping them in a species tank. To tell you the truth, once their novelty wore off, I found them quite boring and this ultimately led to their demise. IMO, they are only cool to watch when they eat, otherwise, they don't really do much.

Having said this, I would keep pipefish again, however it would be another species. Enneacampus ansorgii is a smaller fish and in all estimations, a lot more colorful. Another pipe-like fish that seems interesting is Indostomus paradoxus- a cross between a stickleback and a pipefish. Where to get these though, I haven't a clue.