Pipefish info?

[betta blue]

My local LFS shop has pipefish that I find fascinating. I have a problem with black mollies mating and having hoards of fry that all seem to keep surviving. The pipefish would go into a 90 gal tank to control molly offspring (boy...have I changed since my first tank!) which should be a natural food source? The tank currently has 5 clown loaches varying from 2.5 t0 3 in.; 2 Yo yo loaches at 4in. 5 adult mollies about 2 - 21/2 in, 1 twig catfish and a 10 inch common plec. The molly fry are getting too many to even try to count and the 3 female adult mollies still look pregnant and are reproducing so fast that I'm worried they will soon overwhelm the tank. The tank is freshwater at pretty constant 80 degrees F. If anyone has any information or advise about freshwater pipefish, I'd sure appreciate it.

Thx,
Shar

[MatsP]

I think this is the same as the other thread you started, so I deleted the other one. If there's some detail missing that you amended in the other post, please post corrections below.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

Pipefish do require what you have in terms of a constant supply of live food.

However i only ever recommend them or species only tanks or with extremely well thought out tankmates. I think your large pl*co & active loaches will not prove good tankmates as pipefish are a delicate species & often don't get too big . They have small mouths & need to be reasonably sized to tackle fry.

Pipefish (& mollies ) benefit from a little salt but the loaches won't like this too much.

There are so many better choices of things that'll consume fry - have you thought about tatia species, p.pictus, a spiny eel/ or some of the predatory surface dwelling characins? Or maybe a separate small tank with south american leaf fish - simply net some fry & transfer them across!

[apistomaster]

Fresh water pipe fish can not eat molly fry. They are two large.to be swallowed. In fact, most live bearers' fry are two large and too quick to make good food.
I would plan on feeding them live brine shrimp nauplii. They may be able to eat some black worms from a worm feeder but bbs are still the better food.
They should be kept in a species tank. The only types of tank mates I would trust would be Cherry Shrimp. These will also produce many larvae which will provide an additional food source.
Thick growth of Ceratophyllum will provide cover for them to practice their ambush predator tactics. Currents should be gentle in their tank.

[fishbguy]

If you get the pipe, put it in a tank by it's self with lots of plants. Live works best. It will got lost in a 90, and most likely, starve. Feed it brine shrimp, blackworms might work, etc. Try day old guppy fry as well. Even new born mollies are too large for them. Pipefish are small, and extremely specialized.

[betta blue]

First off, thx Mats for the adjustment. Second off, I have a whole lot more respect for Apistomaster, Larry, than when I first started fish keeping ..as I hope you, Larry, can appreciate as I am now looking for a predator for the offspring happening in my tank. But I have a few questions. I checked the internet to find out that there were a number of different pipers and the fish shop didn't have the latin name for the ones they had but they were from 6 to 8 inches long. The fish shop had a pregnant platy in the tank so the pipers would have fresh food? Thank you fishboy for your response regarding size and speed. The size of the Molly fry are about 1/2 cm or about 1/4 in. I was advised that when they got to 2cm or 1in...they would be too big for the pipers. I have a number of live plants in the aquarium plus a number of floating plants including a large one that should be planted (my common plec who is now about 11 inches uprooted it so many times that I finally allowed it to float around the surface and its rooting very well). I originally had thought of an African Butterfly Fish to maintain the fry but the LFS shop advised that the Mollies would nip it's fins and recommended the piper instead. Thank you Larry for advise of a dedicated tank but I'm still trying to get the tanks I have in order. Am going to be posting another question regarding glass catfish. I'm only questioning so much cause the fellow at the LFS shop seemed to know what he was talking about and said I had a good set up for the piper.

Thx,
Shar

[betta blue]

Thank you Richard B. I looked through the fish you mentioned. Afraid though the south american leaf fish was really interesting, I'm not ready for another tank. I liked the spiny eel but would rather have a "day fish". Are there any other fish that can maintain my molly population. I've had the mollies for only 3 months and already have a lot of adolescents large enough to give away for free to anyone or store that will take them. Then the fry seem to be happening frequently as I'm seeing their numbers now that I can't even try to count. I only got the mollies as "dither fish" to bring two of my clowns out of the bogwood. The mollies didn't do it. I had to get rid of the bogwood and replace it with another on. They quickly accepted the other two clowns and are swimming merrily away with those clown spiral dances, etc. If I can't find a fish to control their numbers, I will just have to give all of them including the original adults away.

Shar

[racoll]

I would recommend you avoid the pipefish also, due to its specific requirements. One for the species tank.

To control the mollies, how about a catfish such as

Pimelodus pictus

or

Microglanis iheringi

, although you probably wont see much of the latter.

I liked the spiny eel but would rather have a "day fish"

They do have a reputation for being nocturnal, but my banded spiny eel (Macrognathus circumcinctus) is always active during the day, and having owned many different types of fish, I have to say he is my favourite; one of the only fish I have given a name. He is called Neil the eel and I think has more personality than all my other fish put together.

I originally had thought of an African Butterfly Fish to maintain the fry but the LFS shop advised that the Mollies would nip it's fins and recommended the piper instead

The butterflyfish will eat those molly fry in seconds, and are a very attractive and interesting fish. An efficient predator of surface dwelling fry! Although never having kept mollies, so I can't say for certain, but I have never heard of them being nippy. I would give the butterfly fish a go, but keep a close eye on it. They are dead easy to catch, so not really any effort to take back to the shop if it gets nipped, but I don't think it would.

Another option would be a spotted climbing perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre). These look very similar to the leaffish, but would fit in your current tank, as they will eat other food other than live fish and are much easier to keep than the leaffish.

[Richard B]

Betta Blue - there are still hundreds of options no-one has mentioned, but a butterfly fish could well be a good choice - like above, i am not aware mollies are nippy but they certainly can be a bit bullish & inquisitive to other midwater/bottom dwellers - i'd give it a go as well.

Racoll - that's a good shout for the Ctenopoma

[apistomaster]

I was wondering if you were proceeding with a pipe fish tank? I want to try keeping some again(it's been 40 years) sometime. I would think good tank mates would be Cherry shrimp. They would not compete with pipe fish and their larvae would provide some constantly available snacks.

[betta blue]

You're right Larry! I was so mesmerized with these pipefish that we now have a 45 gal. tank that is 48in.in length x 17in. high x 14in. wide. It's taking a few days to get rid of all the wallpaper on the sides of the tank. I am planning on using some of the water from the 90 gal. to reduce the time for cycling. Also planning on trying an "el natural" plant aquarium with it. If you can give me any information on setting up the aquarium so it is condusive to pipefish from substrate and plants up, I'd really appreciate it. The pipefish I am looking at 8in. long plus maybe a bit. I asked what their latin name was and got 3 guesses from the staff..no definitives: Microphis Brachyurus Aculeatus or Syngnathus Lineatus and someone said Redline. Any help is muchly appreciated.

Shar

[Richard B]

They prefer a fine sand substrate, thick beds of vallis are good & they are not fond of strong currents - copious amounts of live food are needed like daphnia or baby brine shrimp.

As to species...it could be one of many, there are at least 3 different ones i've seen in the uk & possibly a lot more than that