incysor said:
April, I don't want to sound harsh, but judging by the questions you've been asking I'd say you're very new to the hobby. That being the case I'd wait a year before attempting the ponies.B
Hi, B! Sorry, I just now saw this post. You're right. I am new to this hobby. You're not being harsh -- I appreciate the advice. I appreciate EVERYTHING you say. I am a fast (read: obsessive) learner, though.
scooby_drew1013 said:
have two pipefish. one is a banded and at the store they said my other one was a pygmy but i think it is blue striped and i was wondering what was the best way to feed the pipefish.
Scooby_drew1013: here is a pic of Blue Stripe Pipefish:
By the way, most pipefish do better in mated pairs. If you can find a M/F pair of one species, that would be better than two singles of different species. And don't put two males Blue Stripes together -- they will get aggressive with each other. It's pretty easy to sex them, at least with the Blue Stripes. The males have little tiny "bumps" on their snouts, and their belly is one long concave ridge (which is where they store the eggs), whereas the female has a smooth rounded belly.
Blue Stripes are rather petite as far as pipefish go. They have very small mouths, so they need smaller food. I have a mated pair of them (they act like an old married couple). In the beginning, I had a hard time feeding mine. Mine will eat Cyclopeeze (thanks, B!), which basically are frozen copepods, and live baby brine shrimp and live copepods (their favorite!). Mine will not eat adult brine shrimp (live or frozen), nor mysis (frozen). Adult shrimp are just too big for them, at least for mine anyway -- they really do have teeny tiny mouths. (I have seahorses, too, which I feed enriched live brine shrimp to, and frozen mysis, and my Blue Stripes ignore the adult brine shrimp and the Mysis completely.)
What mine LOVE to eat are live copepods. Blue Stripes are active hunters. They love to hunt among the rocks, plants, and glass for copepods. Mine don't eat out of the water column. They wait for something on the rocks, plants, glass, etc... Even the Cyclopeeze has to hit the plants, rocks, etc... before they'll eat it. I've been buying live cultures of copepods and putting them in the tank for my Blue Stripes.
I've also just started cultures of copepods and rotifers as well as microalgae (platymonas), to see if I can culture them myself, make my own green water to culture them in, and provide a steady input of them into the tank. It's hard to tell how that's going because they (they copepods and the rotifers) are so darn small -- way smaller than baby brine shrimp. At least you can SEE baby brine shrimp!
In the meanwhile, I buy live copepods to put in the tank. There are quite a few websites that sell live copepods. Unfortunately, it's not inexpensive. Cyclopeeze, however, is quite nutritious (they are copepods, too) and is a good food for them. That's the saving grace here; Cyclopeeze is easy to manage and store and feed, etc... Buy the frozen, rather than the freeze dried. Frozen is "cleaner" and pollutes the water much less than freeze dried.
If you end up with a Blue Stripe, let me know. We can compare notes. Put in some live plants with your pipefish. Mine sleep, every single night, side by side, vertically, resting in the concave curve of a Maiden's Fan plant. As soon as the ambient light in the room goes off, they head straight for "their" plant. They really are enjoyable to watch.
