My LFS very rarely gets in African pipefish. These are true freshwater pipefish, and they can usually get them eating frozen food.
I attempted to keep one at one point, and it gladly ate Cyclop-eeze. However, we went on vacation about a week after I got it, and though it had seemed very healthy before (no sunken stomach), it was missing when we got back. The fishsitter hadn't seen it at all, despite being shown what it looked like and where it liked to sit. I still don't know what happened, but I'd like to try again, this time in a micro-fish tank.
One problem with these guys is they have very, very tiny mouths. Also, being pipefish, they need to eat often.
My micro-fish tank is a 29g biocube, and it's going to be stocked with microrasboras, pygmy cories, assorted low-quality neo shrimp, and forktail blue-eye rainbowfish. Should the forktails prove to be a problem for the microrasboras (which I really hope won't happen), they'll go to my 65g.
I considered buying some Endler's livebearers and letting them breed in order to feed the pipe with fry, then I realized that it would be no fun watching the pipe hunt if it was eating adorable big-eye fry.
Here's my idea: I'll get a bunch of really good hiding places set up, like balls of java moss, then I'll dump more cull shrimp in and let them breed for a month or two. After that, I'll add the pipefish. I'll make sure to feed the pipe, it won't completely be feeding itself, but I'm hoping that shrimp babies will keep one happy.
Given that the tank will also have a lot of microrasboras, will this work? I plan to work on stocking pygmy cories for a while, microrasboras probably won't be introduced for a few months.
I attempted to keep one at one point, and it gladly ate Cyclop-eeze. However, we went on vacation about a week after I got it, and though it had seemed very healthy before (no sunken stomach), it was missing when we got back. The fishsitter hadn't seen it at all, despite being shown what it looked like and where it liked to sit. I still don't know what happened, but I'd like to try again, this time in a micro-fish tank.
One problem with these guys is they have very, very tiny mouths. Also, being pipefish, they need to eat often.
My micro-fish tank is a 29g biocube, and it's going to be stocked with microrasboras, pygmy cories, assorted low-quality neo shrimp, and forktail blue-eye rainbowfish. Should the forktails prove to be a problem for the microrasboras (which I really hope won't happen), they'll go to my 65g.
I considered buying some Endler's livebearers and letting them breed in order to feed the pipe with fry, then I realized that it would be no fun watching the pipe hunt if it was eating adorable big-eye fry.
Here's my idea: I'll get a bunch of really good hiding places set up, like balls of java moss, then I'll dump more cull shrimp in and let them breed for a month or two. After that, I'll add the pipefish. I'll make sure to feed the pipe, it won't completely be feeding itself, but I'm hoping that shrimp babies will keep one happy.
Given that the tank will also have a lot of microrasboras, will this work? I plan to work on stocking pygmy cories for a while, microrasboras probably won't be introduced for a few months.