Freshwater Pipefish?

[Aylana]

While trawling around an LFS the other day I noticed they had something in labelled as a freshwater pipefish. It looked just like a normal pipefish that you would find in a SW tank. They are beautiful fish, but are they really freshwater?

 

[Fishy411]

i highly doubt it and i would discourage even trying to find out. people with SW tanks have a hard enough time trying to keep pipefish and i wouldnt even want to know what would happen if you bought it and it needed salt at all.

 

[Def]

Yes, there are freshwater/brackish pipefish, not just marine.

 

[CFC]

The two most commonly imported species, the African "freshwater" pipe fish and the Giant African "freshwater" pipe fish are actually brackish fish that do best when kept in fairly low salinities of around 1.005. They are specialised fish which must be kept in a species tank.

 

[Aylana]

Thanks for the info guys. They are beautiful creatures but I know I am nowhere near experienced enough to keep them. Maybe one day............

 

[fishman 1]

These so called freshwater pipefish are as previously stated are semi brackish.

I had one at 10-11" long. I had it redily feeding on guppy and cichlid fry.

They tend to starve do death when trying to get them on frozen foods etc.

I made a fatal mistake last week though..... I went on HOLIDAY!

I left strict instuctions on the feeding of my fish house... labelled every tank... advised on food quantity.... and asked to feed the tanks every other day if possible but less frequently if things did not tie in with their own plans.

What a mistake! They took it on themselves to feed every day and ignore my instructions. It is a good job I carried out water changes the day before i left.

Most tanks had been fed excessively and unfortunately my pipe fish could not take this type of abuse. I returned to find this truely wonderful fish taking its last breath and it died over night. The poor things dorsal fin had virtually rotted off.

When things like this happen it makes me wonder why the hell i bother to put so much effort in to the hobby!

You probably think I am ungrateful that this person had actually looked after my fish for me..... The truth is I am not at all. Just disapointed that instructions were not followed and I lost a cracker of an oddball.

 

[@ombomb]

I caught a pipe fish in brackish water once.

We'd sailed up an estuary on the Isle of Wight and had thrown out a baited drop net for crabs, hauled it in and found a pipe fish in there.