Pipe Fish in the Nano

[mmarquis]

Once again I am pushing the envelope of the nano tank. Ok, actually this may not be pushing it at all, but have never heard of someone putting the fish that I have in my nano. I just got a really cool pipe fish for my 11 gallon home tank. He is like a long skinny bumble bee with a red and white tail fin. He is pretty cool, but I have to feed him ghost shrimp, but that should work out fine too (or get a refugium going on my tank). He seems happy and thinks my two false percs are crazy hanging out in a torch coral all day.

 

Just an update, the purple lobster in my work tank (6 gallon) is still doing great. He comes out when I feed the damsel and I haven't noticed any noticeable growth in him now for about 10 months. He seems happy and he and the golden damsel just ignore each other.

[Brianc_4]

Pipefish generally are not recommended for tanks less than 20-30gal due to the fact that they can grow up to eight inches. I have seen them happy enough in a 20g(cool fish by the way).

They are not a very easy fish to keep, they require very strict water parameters, and are closely related to seahorses. Blennies and wrasses may pick on him. He should be fine with false percs, and I'm not sure about the growth rate, or how big your fish is but you should be able to keep him for awhile before you need to find a bigger home. Good luck;)

[mmarquis]

Thanks for the info, I am planning a bigger reef in the next 6 months or so (min. 20 gallon). Currently he is about 2.5 inches or so. He is fun and swims around a lot.

[tinyreef]

go long 'L' tank unless you plan on seahorses too. in that case go 'H' or 'XH'.

 

do you feed it live or frozen? because i think a couple of places now sell live online now but i haven't heard the quality yet.