# Freshwater Pipefish



## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

I'm in the planning process of planning a African oddball biotope tank, and am wondering if anyone knows anything about species of freshwater pipefish (like if they can ACTUALLY live in freshwater. I have heard they can. but you never know.) I'm particularly interested in Syngnathus pulchellus, Enneacampus ansorgeii (Congo Pipefish) and my favorite: Microphis aculeatus (shown in picture). If anyone know anything on the care of these fish, and whats more, how to go about getting my hands on one, I'd be VERY grateful.


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## Guest (Sep 22, 2008)

franksaquarium seems to have a type in at the moment. Here

I'd be so jealous if you get these fish


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## SBDTHUR (Jun 15, 2007)

Aquascapeonline.com also has them


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

I believe those are commonly known as Needle Fish. I have read that they tend to be extremely aggressive towards other semi-aggressive species so just be careful with them. It is also recommended that they be fed live foods.


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## crazyfishlady (Nov 4, 2007)

Those don't look like needlefish in the picture. If they are, they sell needlefish at the petsmart here in IL.


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## Guest (Sep 22, 2008)

nope, not needlefish at all. there are lots of species of pipefish out there, ranging from sw, to brackish to freshwater.


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

no. I have a needle fish that I'm looking to get rid of. the are VERY aggressive. Pipefish is something totally different. I just can't find much on their care requirements. Once i get that figured out, I think i can special order one from my local Petland.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Are you able to provide a steady supply of small live foods? Pipefish won't eat flake or pellets, so live foods aren't just recommended, but essential.


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

I thought about it, and I'm looking into pros and cons of mosquito larvae, flour beetles, Toxorhynchites speciosus (a red mosquito larvae that is atleast 3x bigger than normal mosquito larvae.), and midge larvae. I don't do shipping, so these were chosen because i have them locally and can start a culture in 1-2 day by leaving water out. I can also add live aquatic earthworms as a treat that i collect from a nearby stream. I have a 1 gallon quarentine of them that my either fish love as treats.are there any other easy live foods i can culture? not brine shrimp. Would they eat young guppies and/ ore fry?
EDIT: by easy to culture, i mean attract, natural culture, or simply find. like the foods I already have.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Most of those items are a bit big for most pipefish to eat, but a really big pipefish can eat some of the very smaller ones. Pipefish are basically seahorses, or course, and just as tricky to feed.

Maybe you could try whiteworms. You grow them yourself, but you'd need to order a starter culture from Aquabid. After that you'd always have plenty. They're very small, and if you harvested them while they were still young they'd be really small. Adults may even be small enough for big pipefish.

Mosquito larvae and such are fine, but what will you do in the winter?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

How about daphnia? You can raise it in a bucket outside. http://www.djramsey.com/tropfish/fishfood.htm I'll also heard of raising brine shrimp this way. After you hatch baby brine, dump the saltwater and unhatched egg in a tub outside. Do this every time and you will eventually have brine shrimp to feed, too. 

I don't know about winter.


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

I'm working on starting a daphnia culture in a 5 or 8 gallon tank with water from my neighbors ponds. just out of curiosity, what are the chances that a pipefish would eat frozen foods once they are thawed?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Very very slim


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

hmm. well then i guess i'l be getting white worms, daphnia, and live brineshimp.  I really want the pipefish to do well. I'm planning on getting it over thanksgiving break. I don't think I've ever done this much prep for a single fish. hopefully it will all pay off.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2008)

Make sure you gut-load the live brine, because on their own they have very little nutritional value. They're a very appealing food to pipefish and seahorses, though.


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

now i just need to triple check to be POSITIVE that it can thrive in 100% freshwater. i've become distrusting of any generaly saltwater typ of fish that is said to live in freshwater. usually turns out to be a lie to sell a marine or brackish species. If it is actually freshwater, then it's settled, I'm getting one or two of them! 
EDIT: what would your recomendations be if a species is listed as amphidromous? slowly acclimate them to freshwater?
also, 
Microphis aculeatus	Freshwater pipefish
Microphis leiaspis Barhead pipefish
Enneacampus ansorgii Congo Pipefish
Pseudophallus elcapitanensis 
Doryichthys boaja 
are not shown as a coastal fish, but still listed as being found in fresh environments. i think they are my best bet.


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

Has anyone heard of a Columbian Pipefish? I've been keeping an eye on the shipping list at the Aviarium, and yesterday they said they had some Columbian Pipefish on there. I need to figure out if they are one of the fresh/brackish species asap if i want to order them. 
If anyone is curious, they are $14.99. just in case it turns out they are marine and someone wants some.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

It highly depends on the type your getting.
The ones listed in your picture grow to anywhere from 6-11 inches, and can eat larger items like frozen mysis if you "can" get them to accept it. You'll need a larger tank, 55 gallons and up, and they tend to sway more towards the freshwater side. They can also be slightly aggressive towards eachother.

Enneacampus ansorgii on the other hand, prefer slightly brackish water, and grow from 4-6 inches typically. They are NOT the best type to start with, but incidentally the ones most commonly available. You'll need to special order them online, unless your VERY diligent about checking with your LFS (hopefully one that has an odd assortment of fish). I waited two and a half years just to find one pair. I ended up finding two at a large multi-million dollar fish store with fish i've never even heard of (and they honestly had forgotten they even had them or who ordered them). 
While they're like seahorses, they're honestly much more difficult to care for until you've gotten the hang of it. Before getting a pair of these, i've had three species of seahorses, including dwarves, and only one species of pipefish (dragonface). It was great practice, but at the same time... it was still too much to handle. If your wanting to go with them, start with a small group of them, seperately quarantine pairs in different tanks (very susceptible to infections and fungal diseases... which was what killed off mine and the halfbeaks I had housed with them at the time), and be prepared to raise brine shrimp. Baby brine will do good for 1-6 hours after hatching, seeing as they still have part of the "yolk sac" left. After that, it's used up... and they won't be able to physically eat until about a day after hatching. Though, you can also use Selcon, it acts like an adhesive and sticks to their outer layer. Day old+ brine can also be too large. I've gotten mine to eat frozen daphnia a few times, but I wouldn't even consider that route until you've had them consistently eating. Daphnia can also be slightly too large, and you'll need to enrich them (try culturing a small batch of live ones... try aquaculturestore.com.) In their tank, I stocked it with about 20 large bundles of java moss to cover the entire tank. They'd go through and eat all the microscopic "bugs," nematodes, etc. It really does help, and it's a great medium for withstanding their environment (they enjoy weekly salinity changes).
There's a great article on them in TFH, which I have somewhere... it entails the basics on them, and his "success" with them is partly credited to the changes in sg that he creates (which happens in most of their natural environments).
This species is very small, and you could house a few of them in a ten gallon tank, honestly. A small tank like this, and you'll be able to find them, and the feeding density will be much easier for them to feed (also, you don't need to hatch the brine in full on saltwater, fyi).

If you need anymore help, just ask 
Btw, if you do research on dwarf seahorses, you should find some info/techniques that could great help out if you go towards ansorgii.


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