Harlequin Ghost Pipefish

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hi, a fellow local reefer friend of mine just purchased a Harlequin Ghost Pipefish from my LFS.

 

 

 

Does anyone on here know the actual proper method to care for one of these beauties? I have some scanty info from the web, but I wager it feeds on live BBS and baby guppies. Either way, my LFS offered to give me one six months back, but I didn't take it then because my tank was brand new + I severely lack info on caring for a pipefish + I wasn't confident in keeping one.

 

Is taking care of this fish equivalent to taking care of the usual banded or dragon pipefish? I'm assuming they need plenty of pods and macro to thrive on, but I could be wrong. Does anyone have any valuable info on these guys?

[natalia_la_loca]

I don't have any experience with them personally, but "They feed mostly on mysids but also target small benthic shrimps" per Fishbase.

[tibbsy07]

Gorgeous fish!

[Snow_Phoenix]

I don't have any experience with them personally, but "They feed mostly on mysids but also target small benthic shrimps" per Fishbase.

 

Wow, sounds like a tough diet then! I also bet they only do live food and not frozen (or maybe they could be weaned onto frozen eventually). Either way, I'll admire one from afar.

 

Gorgeous fish!

 

That, they most certainly are!

[thesmallerthebetter]

wow! new fish for my must haves list....

[tamiw]

They are very hard to keep alive in captivity. The California Academy of Sciences has been trying to work with getting a stable population by hand collecting them from the Philippines every year. Their success has been middling at best. I would not expect it to survive.

That being said, your best bet is to get it isolated in a tank so it can't be out competed for food. If you can't do that, some other way of isolating it and food, but bigger than a breeder next so it does not injure itself on the sides of the contain it is housed in. Putting together acrylic divider or column with mesh windows might work.

It feeds from the water column, so picking pods off the bottom isn't going to happen. If you can get it to take adult brine shrimp (which is a huge if, many syngnathids don't like the "look" of brine shrimp), then enriching it might provide a stable diet. You'd need to enrich with something that is high in DHA, Dan's Feed from seahorse source is probably your best choice. A short term solution would be selco or a similar enrichment, but they aren't very high in DHA so would need to be moved to a better enrichment sooner.

You can also try newly hatched brine shrimp, but I'm guessing based on their wild diet, it will be more likely to go after larger food. None-the-less, I would try it. It would also need to be enriched with a high dha containing enrichment.

Enrichment is going to be key with the diet, because syngnathids need DHA, and need a high lipid diet. Adult brine shrimp has none, and newly hatched artemia has no dha, essential for marine life.

Sach's aquaculture (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/) has reasonably priced mysis shrimp. I would also ordering mysis shrimp. But isolating the mysis so everything else in the tank doesn't eat them, or they go into hiding. Thus the reason I suggest isolation.

One significant challenge you will face is bacterial infections. Syngnathids have a primitive immune system, and so are easily overcome by illnesses, especially when stressed. Keep an eye out for white patches and skin turbidity. Seahorse aquarists often turn the temperature down to help slow the spread of bacterial infections, but I'm not sure how ghost pipefish would handle it.

I don't know anyone that has had them long enough to attempt a frozen food diet. I wouldn't recommend trying it by withdrawing food, only by adding food to see if it will take it.

Good luck! Please keep us posted, there isn't a lot of info about them in captivity, so even small successes will help the next person.

[Snow_Phoenix]

They are very hard to keep alive in captivity. The California Academy of Sciences has been trying to work with getting a stable population by hand collecting them from the Philippines every year. Their success has been middling at best. I would not expect it to survive.

 

That being said, your best bet is to get it isolated in a tank so it can't be out competed for food. If you can't do that, some other way of isolating it and food, but bigger than a breeder next so it does not injure itself on the sides of the contain it is housed in. Putting together acrylic divider or column with mesh windows might work.

 

It feeds from the water column, so picking pods off the bottom isn't going to happen. If you can get it to take adult brine shrimp (which is a huge if, many syngnathids don't like the "look" of brine shrimp), then enriching it might provide a stable diet. You'd need to enrich with something that is high in DHA, Dan's Feed from seahorse source is probably your best choice. A short term solution would be selco or a similar enrichment, but they aren't very high in DHA so would need to be moved to a better enrichment sooner.

 

You can also try newly hatched brine shrimp, but I'm guessing based on their wild diet, it will be more likely to go after larger food. None-the-less, I would try it. It would also need to be enriched with a high dha containing enrichment.

 

Enrichment is going to be key with the diet, because syngnathids need DHA, and need a high lipid diet. Adult brine shrimp has none, and newly hatched artemia has no dha, essential for marine life.

 

Sach's aquaculture (http://www.aquaculturestore.com/) has reasonably priced mysis shrimp. I would also ordering mysis shrimp. But isolating the mysis so everything else in the tank doesn't eat them, or they go into hiding. Thus the reason I suggest isolation.

 

One significant challenge you will face is bacterial infections. Syngnathids have a primitive immune system, and so are easily overcome by illnesses, especially when stressed. Keep an eye out for white patches and skin turbidity. Seahorse aquarists often turn the temperature down to help slow the spread of bacterial infections, but I'm not sure how ghost pipefish would handle it.

 

I don't know anyone that has had them long enough to attempt a frozen food diet. I wouldn't recommend trying it by withdrawing food, only by adding food to see if it will take it.

 

Good luck! Please keep us posted, there isn't a lot of info about them in captivity, so even small successes will help the next person.

 

Thank you for this very informative piece, but I'm not the owner of this wonderful creature. He belongs to a friend, who isn't well-prepared to keep one, so all the local reefers are pooling together and cracking our heads on how to help out. I'll send him this short array of info. Many thanks!

[harleychic]

What a shame this beautiful creature is so difficult to maintain in captivity! Keep us posted!

[1.0reef]

WOW!!!!! I have NEVER seen one in captivity! Incredibly rare, and just as hard to keep unfortunately. For now they're best left in the ocean IMO.

I agree with Tamiw.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Unfortunately, I gave up helping this reefer on keeping this specimen due to a few personal reasons. It died eventually btw. And I honestly am beginning to hate people who are rich enough to buy everything out there in the LFS, but lack the time and research skills needed to tend to the animal they've woefully chosen.

[ZephNYC]

If you can't deal with a daily endless supply of live mysis you should never even think about these.

[JavaJacketOC]

Unfortunately, I gave up helping this reefer on keeping this specimen due to a few personal reasons. It died eventually btw. And I honestly am beginning to hate people who are rich enough to buy everything out there in the LFS, but lack the time and research skills needed to tend to the animal they've woefully chosen.

 

Amen to that...the people who want to drive the fancy car but have no idea how it's put together how to maintain it drive me nuts. Sucks that this animal had to pay the price for it.

[Snow_Phoenix]

If you can't deal with a daily endless supply of live mysis you should never even think about these.

 

Don't worry Zeph, I never ever thought about keeping these tbh. I was curious about it. And one derp happened to purchase this, then run around the local forums asking how to feed it and take care of it. Initially I was supportive and trying to pass on the info I gathered online and on here from Tamiv's posts, but then I get called a 'Keyboard Warrior' and a 'Loser' for trying to help him. He eventually killed this poor animal, and I personally think that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Just because you have money, doesn't mean you should buy what you think is a pretty animal and shove it into your tank with no idea how to take care of it.

 

Amen to that...the people who want to drive the fancy car but have no idea how it's put together how to maintain it drive me nuts. Sucks that this animal had to pay the price for it.

 

Yeah, pity it had to wind up in this guy's hands but it's done. At least the poor thing isn't suffering anymore.