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Raising Baby Pipefish


tomandelyse

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We just got a mated pair of yellow multi banded pipefish. The male had about 20 eggs. Some of the eggs came loose during the move to our tank. We were concerned but have been keeping an eye on the remaining 6-8 eggs. We noticed a few of the remaining eggs appear black rather than red. Today we noticed he's completely full of eggs again(two rows of 15-20 on each side). There are still 6-8 eggs that were there and 3 still appear black. We just found our first baby pipe in our separate display refugium. It's barely 1/4". We've been watching the baby and it's been eating like crazy. Right now he kind of looks like a seahorse. He's been swimming vertically and eating mostly off the top of the tank. Wondering if anyone has experience or special knowledge on raising baby pipefish. I'm in the middle of baby-proofing my refugium. I've had trouble finding any information on raising these. Right now my idea is to raise them in this separate fuge until there's big enough to be in with mom and dad

 

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ill take four when there big enough cause ive read that they need to be small into your tank cause there kind of agressive and i have a three stripe that is a jerk so i need to double them up to get through his aggrisivinessness and hopefully come out with two

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that is awesome. what species are they? Do the babies take food off the surface of objects or out of the water column? I have a tiny red copepod smaller than a rotifer you could try for your next batch but we were in Mexico and my cultures are a bit sad at the moment. The reason I asked if they pick out of the water or off a surface is the little pods only sit on objects, they don't swim all that often, except for right after I dump in greenwater, that makes them swim.

 

Kate

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That's great!

 

I hate to bring bad news but your fuge can't support the amount of food they'll need to survive so more than likely they'll probably perish in a few days due to starvation and lack of proper diet for them to fully develop.

 

The good news is that they're spawning for you so you can prepare yourself with a small breeding tank along with the proper food and supplements the fry will need to survive.

 

Spend some time over at the MOFIB forum and talk with the members there, you'll definitely be able to find some people who've had success with the same species and they can let you in on they're successes and they're failures.

 

http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/

 

Good luck and keep us informed on how things are going!

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PICS

 

I believe they are Doryrhamphus pessuliferus. The little guy is still alive, active. It looks like he is still eating from the surface of the water and on the side of the glass. It appears he is getting copepods that are large enough to see. I am hatching some baby brine today to see if he shows any interest. The fuge that he is in was abandoned when I added a secondary display fuge. There is still a DSB some random calurpa, halamida, kelp and clouds of free swimming pods and tons of arcti pods. I was going to dose my "oyster feast" and phyto in his chamber.

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Get the baby brine in ASAP and keep making more. Once the bbs is 24 hours old feed the bbs selco and some rotifeed cause bbs after the yolk sac is gone is worthless to fry. Seahorses, pipefish, mandarinfish can wipe out a tank of Copepods and other critter pretty quick. Good luck!

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that is my favorite pipe, good luck! I kind of think they might have trouble finding enough food but document what you do and what they eat and even that would be a great contribution to the breeding community. I don't think anyone has ever raised this fish before with success. When I get my little red pods back up to speed I have to give you some, they are awesome.

 

also see this site:

http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tt.aspx?forumid=79

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