nastronaut
Active member
- Location
- Austin, Tx
Hey there!
Just thought I'd share my approach to these 3 new additions and what I'm doing with my tank and them to (hopefully) keep everyone happy and healthy! (They're arriving tomorrow so I can continue to update as we go.)
A little about my tank: 40gal mixed reef, good amount of live rock, loads of pods and no pod-specific eaters. I also keep high-density copepod cultures and live phyto and macro going 24/7/365. Filtration is mostly biofilter, I do run carbon and or polyfilter at times too and try to give the filter a good clean every month, and run prefilters pretty often, cleaning throughout the week.
Tank mates include: a single Occelaris, mostly friendly - doesnt seem to care about pipefish, a female black molly, and currently I have about 30~ 1inch~ saltwater raised molly, but throughout the QT process I'll be rehoming majority of my babies where they can school in much larger local reefs
About the newcomers: I've ordered 3 Blue Stripe Pipefish, they're not labelled as a direct import or captive bred, so either is possible. I'm hopeful that 2 will form a pair and the 3rd will no be a victim of aggression, but I do have an extra nanno reef, or if I absolutely must rehome the 3rd atleast it'll be QT'd. The 2nd nanno is a small clown breeder, if the 3rd pipe had to go down there I'd likely just upgrade the entire nanno to a larger setup, as there's room.
QT process: We're going to go with the hyrbid TTM. I've got a large amount of pods at the ready, and can stagger use of each culture to make repopulation a non-issue. I plan to use general cure instead of prazipro for the anti-parasitic to also cover uronema.
I've kept Dragonfaced pipefish in the past, and when I was newer to the hobby. So I'm quite aware of their susceptibility to secondary's, and am hopefully they won't be predisposed upon arrival. That said, I can adjust the QT method a bit throughout the 1st four days if any physical injury or antibacterial are required.
I'm also installing a 50gph UV pump to the DT, as well as heavily cleaning prior to their arrival, dosing the algal-remedy levels of peroxide daily to help break down organics, and increasing my WC schedule and volume over the past month.
Goals - I'm hoping throughout the winter to experiment raising fry from a breeding pair, and it also helps put more of my copepods to work. I enjoyed raising my saltwater mollies and think that pipefish would be a great opportunity to become more proficient at marine breeding, plus I'm just a pipefish fanatic.
Just thought I'd share my approach to these 3 new additions and what I'm doing with my tank and them to (hopefully) keep everyone happy and healthy! (They're arriving tomorrow so I can continue to update as we go.)
A little about my tank: 40gal mixed reef, good amount of live rock, loads of pods and no pod-specific eaters. I also keep high-density copepod cultures and live phyto and macro going 24/7/365. Filtration is mostly biofilter, I do run carbon and or polyfilter at times too and try to give the filter a good clean every month, and run prefilters pretty often, cleaning throughout the week.
Tank mates include: a single Occelaris, mostly friendly - doesnt seem to care about pipefish, a female black molly, and currently I have about 30~ 1inch~ saltwater raised molly, but throughout the QT process I'll be rehoming majority of my babies where they can school in much larger local reefs
About the newcomers: I've ordered 3 Blue Stripe Pipefish, they're not labelled as a direct import or captive bred, so either is possible. I'm hopeful that 2 will form a pair and the 3rd will no be a victim of aggression, but I do have an extra nanno reef, or if I absolutely must rehome the 3rd atleast it'll be QT'd. The 2nd nanno is a small clown breeder, if the 3rd pipe had to go down there I'd likely just upgrade the entire nanno to a larger setup, as there's room.
QT process: We're going to go with the hyrbid TTM. I've got a large amount of pods at the ready, and can stagger use of each culture to make repopulation a non-issue. I plan to use general cure instead of prazipro for the anti-parasitic to also cover uronema.
I've kept Dragonfaced pipefish in the past, and when I was newer to the hobby. So I'm quite aware of their susceptibility to secondary's, and am hopefully they won't be predisposed upon arrival. That said, I can adjust the QT method a bit throughout the 1st four days if any physical injury or antibacterial are required.
I'm also installing a 50gph UV pump to the DT, as well as heavily cleaning prior to their arrival, dosing the algal-remedy levels of peroxide daily to help break down organics, and increasing my WC schedule and volume over the past month.
Goals - I'm hoping throughout the winter to experiment raising fry from a breeding pair, and it also helps put more of my copepods to work. I enjoyed raising my saltwater mollies and think that pipefish would be a great opportunity to become more proficient at marine breeding, plus I'm just a pipefish fanatic.
