PrincessKiara
Fish Crazy
Hello all!
The father of one of my friends owns a small pet shop (mostly fish) near my house, and they were selling pipefish. Since my veterinarian uncle assured me that they can be trained to eat flake (and my friend said hers did), today she brought me a tiny pipefish, max 2.5" long (probably not even that)!
From Tropical Fish Finders' description, I'm pretty sure it's a Doryichthys martensii or a related species. I know they ought to be in groups, but I first wanted to try to see if I could keep one alive before risking any more. I have yet to see mine take any flake, and not for lack of opportunity; who knows, maybe he's stressed from the change and won't eat just yet, but he's so tiny...
I can get either brine shrimp or feeder fish here, but don't want to risk the feeder fish (or any other freshwater food for that matter) due to parasites. Should I keep some pregnant guppies with them, at least until the angels decide they want a delicious mama-guppy fillet? Or should I just start an infusoria culture to feed them with, like fry? I don't want to lose them! I was told they would take flake and now I'm not so sure, but now I'm head over heels in love with these fish and I would like to get more!
Here are my tank stats, in a list cause I'm a list hound LOL:
Size: 240L
Filtration: 100L sump
Other equipment:
Heater (kept at 78F)
Airstone
Bubble wand, powerhead and 2nd airstone currently offline (2nd air pump broke and powerhead is stuck)
Wooden hood with 2 yellow and 1 blue bulbs
Substrate: Fine white sand
Current decorations: Lava-rock arch, moderate planting (will put more in later)
Plants:
1 large Amazon Sword
Lots of Hornwort
Some Elodea
3 Corkscrew Vals with runners
A bit of a light green ground cover plant
Current inhabitants:
2 young angels (male from what I'm told)
3 Paleatus cory cats
2 orange swordtails (male and female)
1 small pipefish
2 golden/ivory Mystery snails
5-6 small dark Malaysian trumpet snails
An infinite amount of small ramshorn (blue and brown) and apple (brown) snails
Future critter plans:
More pipefish (if I can figure out a way to feed them)
More colors of mystery snail
Bamboo shrimp
6 marble hatchetfish
3 more Paleatus cories
A pair of Discus (gonna try it and well, if it doesn't work out I have a friend who's an expert breeder and will take good care of them)
4-8 more angels to grow out and get a pair before rehoming the rest
African Dwarf Frogs (likely next week)
1 male Betta of a wild species
Tons of crypts, ferns, pygmy chain swords and dwarf hair grass
Thanks in advance guys!
~PK.
The father of one of my friends owns a small pet shop (mostly fish) near my house, and they were selling pipefish. Since my veterinarian uncle assured me that they can be trained to eat flake (and my friend said hers did), today she brought me a tiny pipefish, max 2.5" long (probably not even that)!
From Tropical Fish Finders' description, I'm pretty sure it's a Doryichthys martensii or a related species. I know they ought to be in groups, but I first wanted to try to see if I could keep one alive before risking any more. I have yet to see mine take any flake, and not for lack of opportunity; who knows, maybe he's stressed from the change and won't eat just yet, but he's so tiny...
I can get either brine shrimp or feeder fish here, but don't want to risk the feeder fish (or any other freshwater food for that matter) due to parasites. Should I keep some pregnant guppies with them, at least until the angels decide they want a delicious mama-guppy fillet? Or should I just start an infusoria culture to feed them with, like fry? I don't want to lose them! I was told they would take flake and now I'm not so sure, but now I'm head over heels in love with these fish and I would like to get more!
Here are my tank stats, in a list cause I'm a list hound LOL:
Size: 240L
Filtration: 100L sump
Other equipment:
Heater (kept at 78F)
Airstone
Bubble wand, powerhead and 2nd airstone currently offline (2nd air pump broke and powerhead is stuck)
Wooden hood with 2 yellow and 1 blue bulbs
Substrate: Fine white sand
Current decorations: Lava-rock arch, moderate planting (will put more in later)
Plants:
1 large Amazon Sword
Lots of Hornwort
Some Elodea
3 Corkscrew Vals with runners
A bit of a light green ground cover plant
Current inhabitants:
2 young angels (male from what I'm told)
3 Paleatus cory cats
2 orange swordtails (male and female)
1 small pipefish
2 golden/ivory Mystery snails
5-6 small dark Malaysian trumpet snails
An infinite amount of small ramshorn (blue and brown) and apple (brown) snails
Future critter plans:
More pipefish (if I can figure out a way to feed them)
More colors of mystery snail
Bamboo shrimp
6 marble hatchetfish
3 more Paleatus cories
A pair of Discus (gonna try it and well, if it doesn't work out I have a friend who's an expert breeder and will take good care of them)
4-8 more angels to grow out and get a pair before rehoming the rest
African Dwarf Frogs (likely next week)
1 male Betta of a wild species
Tons of crypts, ferns, pygmy chain swords and dwarf hair grass
Thanks in advance guys!
~PK.
