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pipefish B&B

killi69

Member
Joined
8 May 2009
Messages
346
Location
Milton Keynes
This journal does not begin with tank dimensions or design concepts. It all started when I was in the LFS after work one evening and spotted some very interesting looking fish in one of the tanks;

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I googled the fish - Enneacampus ansorgii - and to my surprise, it came from the Cameroon region. I maintain a tank mainly with killi species from Cameroon, so I immediately thought these species might make a very interesting addition to my tank and started thinking about the suitability of this fish.
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The guy who runs the LFS told me he that had ordered these in as a one-off for a friend and had some left over. With only a few minutes left before closing time, I quickly tried to find out more information by googling the fish on my phone - the guy in the shop knew nothing about them. I quickly established that these fish were not easy. I read they were slow feeders that live in thick vegetation, need live foods and are not suitable for a community tank as they are likely to be out-competed at feeding time by other fish.

I had recently overcome a similar situation with another species, Microctenopoma ansorgii, which was also described as a shy fish not suitable for a community tank due mainly to its slow feeding habits. I had worked out a feeding system that allows me to successfully maintain them alongside my boisterous collection of killifish by creating a feeding frenzy in one area while squirting live and frozen foods via a large pipette directly into the plant mass where the Microctenopomas hang out. I figured that I could try to feed the pipefish in the same way and that my tank full of plants and wood would be suitable environment for them.

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So I bought four fish. The man in the shop did not know the difference between males and females so I chose two with the brightest colours (red and some blue) and two with the least coloration in the hope of selecting at least one pair.

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After careful acclimatisation, I introduced the pipefish to the tank.
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They looked fantastic and seemed happy exploring their new home.
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I took some footage of the pipefish just after I had released them into the tank. Note the interest shown by a female Fundulopanchax gardneri killi half way through the video.

While the pipefish were acclimatising and exploring their new home, I spent some time searching the net for more information about their maintenance. Not much was available, but it was clear that keeping pipefish was even more complicated than I had originally thought. Apparently they have no stomachs and need constant supply of live food.

With dread I was watching as the killis began to pay more and more attention to the pipefish. They started picking at the pipefish who would then lie flat and/or withdraw. As more killis were encircling the pipefish, one large female grabbed a pipefish by its head as if it was a large worm and struggled with it for a couple of seconds before letting go.

I had clearly made a big mistake buying these fish for my killi tank and within an hour I had caught three of them with the fourth one captured the following day. I now felt responsible for them and figured I was able to give them a better chance than if they were to go back to the LFS.

I was totally unprepared however – I did not have a spare tank or a matured spare filter. I did have a small plastic crate which I hastily set up as a temporary asylum with some ferns and a piece of wood from my main tank, as well as a spare filter and heater. I carried out daily water changes for the first two weeks.

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Unfortunately, I lost two of the pipefish within the next week. I had read that pipefish easily succumb to infections caused by damaged skin following handling/ netting or attacks by other fish, so it’s possible that the attacks by the killifish could have caused fatal injuries. I also read that many pipefish die within a few weeks following purchase and that chances of survival increase after this period.

The staple diet is live glassworm which I enrich before feeding. In addition, I sieve daphnia and bloodworm and feed them the very smallest ones.
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I also set up a brine shrimp hatching system, with one bottle for each stage of the process (hatching – growing on – enriching).
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Fish get fed twice a day and I very often find myself spending more time preparing their food than my own :lol: - certainly for breakfast!. They are very fussy eaters and hunt with lots of patience. They kind of stare ahead of them and might focus on one item swimming ahead/ above and totally ignore all the other live food floating all around them. They wait for something to float exactly passed their head, which, off course, usually it doesn’t. They need to have live food around them all the time. I have a load of ramshorn snails in the tank to clean up the live foods, especially the brine shrimp, that die before being eaten.

I also read an account of someone who maintained a colony of shrimps in their pipefish tank. The shrimps not only helped keep the tank clean, they also provided occasional live foods in the form of baby shrimplets. At the Aquatics Live exhibition, I bought ten Red Sakoras from Freshwater Shrimp, although to date I have not noticed any berried shrimps yet.
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Meanwhile, I have started to gather the equipment needed to set up a permanent home for them. From an old set up, I still have a number of 40cm cube tanks left over, which I think will be a good size for this project. Large enough for the pipefish but small enough to help make sure that live foods remain relatively close to the fish.
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I found a piece of wood at the Aquatic Design Centre which I quite liked.
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Not quite sure yet about the design of the tank but it will be low tech and probably involve plenty of ferns on wood. Some of the threads I have read on other forums mentioned not having the planting too dense or you will not be able to see the pipefish that often. This is certainly the case at the moment when the fish are not visible at least half the time. I really do not mind not being able to see the fish, it makes it all more of a treat when you do. In fact, I still keep adding fern plantlets whenever I clean up my large tank. It would be good to have the pipefish in a proper aquarium though as visibility in a plastic crate is pretty rubbish!
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About three weeks ago, ten weeks after I had bought the pipefish, I was looking through the plastic when I spotted something rather exciting.
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Baby pipefish !!!!!
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I was so excited, I could not believe it. The pictures above were actually taken on day three. When I first noticed the babies, they still had their egg yolk on their bellies. Here is a video taken on day four;


I did more research and found a thread on a Dutch forum where someone had successfully reared some young fry in the same tank as their parents and claimed pipefish do not eat their young. On most days, I could spot one or two of them and the most fry I could count at any one time was seven. I did not have any infusoria to hand but was happy to witness the babies eating freshly hatched brineshrimp after a few days.

With Christmas fastly approaching, I now faced a major challenge – a two week holiday booked to Holland. I had made arrangements with a neighbour to feed my fish/plants in my main tank but who on earth was going to spend 30 minutes every morning and evening preparing breakfast and dinner for my pipefish, setting up brineshrimp cultures, sieving live foods, not to mention cleaning the filter and doing a water change??? Certainly not my neighbour...

I was very fortunate that a friend volunteered to babysit them for me:hungry: . I gave her a crash course in feeding live foods and setting up brine shrimp cultures. On day 11, we bagged up the pipefish, the babies, the shrimps, snails, plants and all the water to transport them all across London to her house. I counted eight babies in total;
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Catching them was not a simple matter. Unfortunately, I killed two by sucking them up a pipette (turkey baster) sideways.

By the time, we packed up all the livestock, water and equipment, there was more (+heavier) luggage than what I needed for my own holiday!
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It is now time to seriously start work on their permanent home. Later this week, I will be picking up the pipefish from my friend’s and will keep you up to date.

Thanks for reading,

Andre
 
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Wow, what amazing fish. I contemplated setting up a tank for freshwater pipefish but decided against it. Do you feed microworms, they sink to the bottom and can live for 24 hours underwater, they're also cheap and easy to culture.
 
Wow, what amazing fish. I contemplated setting up a tank for freshwater pipefish but decided against it. Do you feed microworms, they sink to the bottom and can live for 24 hours underwater, they're also cheap and easy to culture.
Thank you, I must try this. I used to culture them for my killi breeding. I suppose vinegar eals might also work for the pipefish fry. I will try to get hold of some cultures.
 
These are amazing do you think they are related to marine sea horses and pipefish? very similar facial expressions.
Good luck!
 
Awesome start to a journal andre, the baby pipefish are very cool. Its quite an achievement and cant wait to see their permanent home all planted up.
Cheers Iain, for your advice to date! As you can see I bought the light and filters we spoke about. Really not sure yet about the planting. Yesterday, I thought I really need to hurry up and get the tank set up this week. Today, I feel more like I should hang on, do more research and get inspiration from other tanks. The piece of wood I have chosen is very large and imposing for a small tank, so I will need to plant it up carefully for it to work. Decisions, decisions...
 
Really great write up! And that is a cool fish!

These are amazing do you think they are related to marine sea horses and pipefish? very similar facial expressions. Good luck!

Very cool fish wish you success with raising them

Very cool unusual fish.
Hydrophyte, Scapegoat, Tim and Dorian - thank you all for your posts:).

I agree, they are really unusual and interesting fish. I have read they are classified as 'primitive fish', not having developed stomachs. Unfortunately, I don't see them move much. When, or if, I see them, they are usually in a still position, with their heads sticking up out of the plants, pointed upwards and looking around for prey to float in their direction.

They are related to seahorses and breed in a similar way; apparently, they have a mating ritual which involves synchronised swimming and the laying of eggs on flat surfaces, which the male(!) then picks up in a special pouch he has for incubating the eggs! The young are then born from this pouch a few weeks later. Amazing stuff.
 
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What a brilliant write up and journal and every photo showing what you reading! Fantastic mate, really good... They are lovely fish too
Hi Gary, thanks for your feedback. I have found it difficult to find the time to keep up a journal, especially over the last couple of months. Instead, I have just been taking pictures of key moments and managed to put them all together yesterday in the right order. Quite nice to have a record with photos to look back on.
 
Hi Andre,
an incredible story to date and a fairy tale outcome. The commitment to your fish has been matched in your journal so far and I'm looking forward to the next instalment/saga :lol:.....it's like reading a best selling novel!
good luck with the set up of their permanent home, your enthusiasm for these peculiar fish is clear and your level of care second to none. I'm impressed simply by the dedication it must have taken to actually catch these fish from your enormous and very heavily planted killi tank!
enjoy your well earned break!
i know another member, Gill had a journal running called 'folly of the pipefish' and he tried to keep these fish, I think unfortunately they succumbed in the end so I'm sure hell find this journal as fascinating as the rest of us when he sees it.
cheerio,
Ady.
 
realy enjoyed reading that. its nice to read about someone being honest and sharing experences when things start to go pear shaped. what a result in the end for all your effort baby pipe fish.they do remind me of sea horses:) .​
 
Andre, only thing i might add is a shrimp guard to the intake of the eheim or your tiny babies might meet a premature end. They fit right onto the inlet nice and snug after removing the slotted cap. Might be worth posting a wanted ad as their are a lot floating about the forum... otherwise
Crystal red shrimp Cherry Shrimp Fry Filter Mesh Aquarium filter guard 16mm | eBay
Also bare in mind that, if you didnt know, that trident will grow with the leaf flat to the light and being quite board is worth considering when planting. :thumbup:
 
Loving the sound of this tank - glad to hear such an uncommon species is getting such a willing owner! Good luck with it :)
 
Hi Andre, an incredible story to date and a fairy tale outcome. The commitment to your fish has been matched in your journal so far and I'm looking forward to the next instalment/saga .....it's like reading a best selling novel! good luck with the set up of their permanent home, your enthusiasm for these peculiar fish is clear and your level of care second to none. I'm impressed simply by the dedication it must have taken to actually catch these fish from your enormous and very heavily planted killi tank! enjoy your well earned break! i know another member, Gill had a journal running called 'folly of the pipefish' and he tried to keep these fish, I think unfortunately they succumbed in the end so I'm sure hell find this journal as fascinating as the rest of us when he sees it. cheerio, Ady.
Hi Ady, thanks for the encouragement, lets see if this fairytale will have a happy ending... I am picking up the pipefish tomorrow, so fingers crossed, I will keep you posted. I read Gill's post with great interest a while ago, from what I remember his species were different to mine but I am sure maintenance issues would be very similar. Hopefully mine are a bit easier and will last longer.

Really interesting, as mentioned already reminded me of Gill and his pipe fish. I hope you are successful At the moment your tank and Alistair's up coming build is keeping me interested. Keep us updated please.
Cheers Sanj, well, I really liked your tank also. How about some updates yourself??;)

really enjoyed reading that. its nice to read about someone being honest and sharing experiences when things start to go pear shaped. what a result in the end for all your effort baby pipe fish.they do remind me of sea horses .
Glad you enjoyed the read Kap k. I will try to be honest and keep you updated on all the pitfalls then. I do worry about what will happen if the LFS ever stops selling live glassworm as that seems to be their favourite food. The only shop I know in London selling them is ADC.

Loving the sound of this tank - glad to hear such an uncommon species is getting such a willing owner! Good luck with it
Hi Little-AL, good to see you like the journal. Thanks for your comments.


Andre, only thing i might add is a shrimp guard to the intake of the eheim or your tiny babies might meet a premature end. They fit right onto the inlet nice and snug after removing the slotted cap. Might be worth posting a wanted ad as their are a lot floating about the forum... otherwise Crystal red shrimp Cherry Shrimp Fry Filter Mesh Aquarium filter guard 16mm | eBay Also bare in mind that, if you didnt know, that trident will grow with the leaf flat to the light and being quite board is worth considering when planting.
Hey Iain, thanks for the tip. I actually have some spare from the big tank - they kept getting clogged up and reducing the flow - so will use one to protect the baby pipefish.

Last week, I had ordered some Trident ferns from Nat on this site, but cancelled the order yesterday (thank you Nat for your understanding:)) because I was thinking the same - they might be too overwelming for this tank. Still not sure about the planting arrangements for this wood. I was looking at icepotato89's 90cm naturescape journal and might have got some inspiration from the moss covered branches and bank of substrate reaching up to the base of the wood.

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