Banded pipefish outlook in a nano reef?

[easily_fishstracted]

I was given a gift certificate for a fish store that is not my LFS, but rather far away. It has taken some time to get around to dropping by there, and so when I did I wanted to get rid of the whole amount. I ended up letting myself be convinced that a pair of banded pipefish would be a good addition to my tank, which is:

a RSR-Nano with 2 normal-sized and one tiny BTA, a lot of green spiny polyps, a hammer coral, 2 clowns, a yasha goby, a pistol shrimp and 1-2 sexy shrimp. The tank is over a year old, and has what seems to be a sizeable pod population (they collect on the glass after a couple days like crazy). I have actually decent flow with a single MP10.

So after reading about these fish I'm definitely not so sure this is a good idea. I got some supplemental food for them, but i'm mostly worried about maintaining enough flow for the rest of the tank while not making the pipefish crazy. They seem to compensate now by staying in the back left corner, which is low-flow, when the MP10 is on a higher setting, and then coming out when it turns down.

They are definitely eating pods - they're going around the tank and i can see them suctioning pods off the glass. So far the clowns are not bothering them either.

Should i try to see how long this lasts, or try to get my LFS to exchange them for another fish?

 

[Katrina71]

I'd try it. I'd love to see your progress. Even if it doesn't work out, you already have the right attitude.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

They're very tough to feed and have similar care to seahorses.

I weaned them from live baby brine shrimp, to frozen brine, then to mysis. They eat quite a lot too and will quickly succumb to starvation is not fed in tiny amounts throughout the day. I usually fed 6x.

If you have ornamental shrimp, they'll go after the shrimps too. I had a pair that kept killing shrimps, which I wasn't aware of, which when i became conscious of it, i was already out 3 shrimps (and those suckers were $30 a piece).

 

[easily_fishstracted]

I have been feeding the tank once a day for about a year, and sometimes skip a day for fear of over feeding - I could do twice but more than that is impossible with my work schedule. They are constantly eating pods I can tell, the question is how well will this pod population sustain itself with two pipefish in the tank? I do not have a refugium.

 

[Katrina71]

No fuge will be near impossible IMO.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

I have been feeding the tank once a day for about a year, and sometimes skip a day for fear of over feeding - I could do twice but more than that is impossible with my work schedule. They are constantly eating pods I can tell, the question is how well will this pod population sustain itself with two pipefish in the tank? I do not have a refugium.

Unless you're dosing phytoplankton and replenishing the pods, i doubt it'll last that long. It's better to get them on a diet of frozen, that way, you'll have a bit more control.

My pair lasted about 1 month with constant feeding and live pods.

 

[sfin52]

I would make a tank dedicated to pods. I would also add pod hotels to that tank so you can switch them out regularly.
https://sbreeflights.com/sb-accessories/48-92-sb-pod-hotel.html
Or make something like this.
Paul b had a Mandy and pipe feeder but it has to have fresh brine shrimp babies introduced every day

 

[easily_fishstracted]

Unless you're dosing phytoplankton and replenishing the pods, i doubt it'll last that long. It's better to get them on a diet of frozen, that way, you'll have a bit more control.

My pair lasted about 1 month with constant feeding and live pods.

Wait, a month, and then what?

They are also eating frozen pods that i mixed in with mysis or brine shrimp, so they’re not only existing on the live guys. I just won’t be able to feed multiple times a day, and am actually hesitant to do more than once as I feel this has done a lot to keeping down phosphates and nitrates in my tank, which is pretty low maintenance at the moment and hopefully will stay that way...

 

[mort]

Based solel on your replies I'd rehome them tbh. I've kept dozens of these pipefish and they aren't particularly hard to keep if you can get enough of the right food into them and with only a couple of feeds a day possible I think they will just fade away. Pods are good for in between feedings but they have the ability to take quite big food items like pe mysis, which is better in the long run.
Getting enough food for them will likely cause you water quality issues. They grow much larger than they are now and can be selective on foods. I kept most in species types tanks and had heavy algae based filtration and large partial water changes.

 

[ReeferBean]

I had a coral banded pipefish for a few years in a mixed reef. It stayed in the back of the rock work for the most part but would hunt the tank at night. It ate mysis. try cyclops first then work your way up in food size.

 

[Paul B]

I am sorry but IMO you will not be able to keep banded pipes in that tank for long no matter what you do. The tank is to small and they are large eaters and not really pod eaters although they may eat them if they are real hungry. They normally pick food out of the water column and that food is hard to supply in a large tank, much less a small tank. Blue stripes will live forever in there though.

 

[easily_fishstracted]

Great comments and thanks - I will head to my LFS tomorrow to see if they're able to take them off my hands. They do look really cool and seem to be eating well and acclimating well to the tank, but I don't want to watch them waste away by not getting enough food. I also was not given the impression they would get any larger, and definitely would not have taken them home if I had known that.