# Doryichthys martensii care



## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

So...I made an impulse buy :-\ . Doryichthys martensii, the black barred pipefish. One currently resides in my 29 gallon planted tank...and I know next to nothing about it. I also haven't seen much on keeping them, aside from E. ansorgii advice...so I guess this is some first documentation on the internet? Here's what I've got so far:

Observations at the LFS showed that the pipefish didn't seem very social shoaling wise. There was plenty of room in the tank, so the fish didn't really seem to socialize that much, if at all in the short time I observed them. I only have a 29 gallon tank, which has a decent copepod population. I was scared that if I got more than 1, I might deplete the pod population too quickly, which would not be very good.

At least two would hide in the flame moss bush at the back of the LFS tank at all times, which is why I put the fish in the planted tank I have. It shares the tank with 3 Danio tinwini currently, and about 10-15 cherry shrimp. I plan to get amano shrimp in the future for live food purposes, as well as increase the number of D. tinwini to about 8, as well as add in some ghost catfish and harlequin rasboras. I may skip on the rasboras, since they seem a bit too active for feeding purposes. Plants in the tank include java moss, flame moss, Cryptocyrne undulata, some struggling Pogostemon helferi and Staurogyne repens (a failed attempt at carpetting), newly planted Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, struggling Alternanthera reineckii, what I think is Polysperma hygrophila (I have no idea how it got into my tank, but I'll take it), and three mini Echinodorus swords. The tank still looks pretty bare.

Water parameter wise, I'm keeping the water soft and at a comfortable temperature (78F).

Food: I don't know what these guys eat. I picked up blackworms at my LFS, and will try feeding with those. I also have some brine shrimp cysts I plan to hatch, and am currently trying to culture more copepods with the blackworms I have currently. I also have some FD Cyclop-eeze, some homemade breeder's gel food for clownfish, and a Tetra vacation gel block I'm trying out so far. My reasoning is this: I'm going to treat this like most people treat mandarin dragonets-give the fish a big enough tank with pods so that if nothing else works, the fish can still thrive, while staying in sight of the aquarist. I'll also treat it like a pencilfish, which gel foods have been reported to work well with.

I'll also be keeping a similar (if not exact repllica) of this thread at fusedjaw. Any advice y'all could give me would be greatly appreciated!!!

EDIT: Grindals seem liek they might be too big, so I'll skip most worms, hopefully the blackworms will work. I'm going to see if they'll take vinegar eels or maybe Daphnia or even micro worms....


----------



## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

Pictures!


----------



## dana19620 (Aug 7, 2016)

You'll have to feed live newly hatched brine that you hatch in saltwater. Make extra because the danios are so quick and the pipefish is slow moving when it eats. I don't think the box fish stores carry the eggs but independent stores do. The can sometimes be taught to eat frozen brine and mysis.

You'll need to make new batches of brine daily.


----------



## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

@dana19620, thanks for the information! But...where'd you get it from? I see you only joined a few days ago...and just want to double check so I don't go running off into a rabbit hole. Regardless, I'm planning on hatching out BBS for the danios, so hopefully the pipefish will also go after the BBS too! I'm also questioning about the mysis and frozen brine, since the pipefish has a veeeery small mouth. I think the mysis shrimp i have in the fridge are like...20x the size of my pipefish' mouth...and as for nutritional quality of the frozen brine....the less said the better....


----------



## dana19620 (Aug 7, 2016)

I used to have saltwater pipefish and had looked into doing freshwater ones also. Then, my back went bad and I gave up everything. Now after my surgery I'm getting back into the hobby. Considered doing a pipefish species freshwater tank, but not sure about it yet.


----------



## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

We also have local species of pipefish.








Syngnathus watermeyeri









Syngnathus acus


Don't think I'd like more things needing expensive food like BBS.


----------



## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

I lost the pipefish today. I had just finished hatching out some BBS for it, and found it pale and belly up in the Alternanthera reineckii. I did call the LFS, but their pipefish seem to be alive, so it can't have been a nutrition issue. I don't normally get emotionally attached to my fish...but this one was different. The LFS does have more, but they're an hour away, and I'm not sure if I want to continue attempting to keep the fish if one just dies on me 5 days after purchase. Am I even competent enough to keep these guys? If/When I eventually do get another D. martensii, I'll update here again. As for now, final observations:
1) Blackworms did absolutely nothing to stimulate the pipefish' appetite. The pipefish would successfully go after copepods within the aquarium.
2) The pipefish seemed to enjoy staying on the bottom parts of the tank, but would make forays to the top parts of the tank, the heater seemed to be a popular destination. Additionally, it liked to stay motionless near tangles of plants.
3) The day before death (yesterday), I did notice a single moment of twitching and violent shaking, but didn't think anything about it because I didn't see any external parasites...which was completely stupid of me.


----------



## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

2. stressed/sick fish often try to find warmer spots because their own body temperatures rises.


----------



## jboone82590 (Jul 4, 2015)

Dang that sucks man but don't give up just keep pushing forward but make sure to try to do another round of research so you can get it right and keep posting on here 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

I'm about to get a pipe fish for my 75 gallon saltwater water tank and maybe in the future I will get one for my 20l planted tank 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Where do u get pods at for freshwater? 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk


----------



## ichthyogeek (Jul 9, 2014)

Thanks for the encouragement jboone. Turns out that today was the day when the BBS hatched out en mass, and the microworms arrived in the mail. If I can go to the store this weekend (the LFS is an hour away), I'll pick another up, hopefully(fingers crossed), it will take microworms. Else, I'll just feed the micros to my nano fish.

The problem, is that nobody seems to be keeping D. martensii. So far, my research has consisted of looking up what saltwater pipefish eat (thanks Dana!), and at the commonly kept E. ansorgii, which doesn't really help, since it's an African pipefish that seems completely different (at least socially) from D. martensii. 

As for 'pods, they're also sold as 'bugs' sometimes. I was lucky enough to get mine in with some plants from the LFS, and they've always managed a population ever since introduction, no matter how many cories I have. The following site sells them, but they're super expensive, especially with shipping, so I'd hold off unless something else catches your fancy: aquaculturestore.com (I did use them to buy saltwater amphipods and mysis once. I know the mysis are still in my 55 gallon, but haven't really seen amphipods lately...)


----------



## jboone82590 (Jul 4, 2015)

Awesome thanks 
I have a bunch of pods in Mt salt water tanks 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk


----------



## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

Freshwater Pipefish.
Purchased as: Doryichthys martensii. We have had them for less than a year and they are healthy.
They are finicky eaters that eat live daphnia and live brine shrimp daily.
If not for a mistake on my part of unplugging a heater for a day, I would have more pipefish.

Jul 18, 2017 upload.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zsxgUHy0LM*


----------



## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

After adding more shrimp, they helped clean up the tank, which seemed to be in my favor.
The Wood shrimp clean the green moss balls very well and the white substrate.

The 10min. pause/feed mode gives everyone a change to relax and eat.
The one thing I have noticed is that pressing the feed mode a second time a few minutes later will kick up some brine shrimp in the current and stimulate a feeding response from the pipefish as well as giving them a second session of a feed mode pause.

They almost exclusively would like to dine on salty live brine shrimp. 
Enjoy.


----------



## Petrithedish (12 mo ago)

'Doryicthys Martensii' The malayan pipefish

I know exactly what you mean about them being different from any other fish. I swear they're more intelligent and I feel a kind of bond with mine. I only have one now as I also bought them on an impulse but bought 4 at first! Absolutely gutting!
Anyway after considerable panicking, extensive research online, careful identification, building a livefood factory thing and very close observation i managed to bring one back from the brink of death, the problem as it turned out was ph- dont go lower than 7 and I'd say stick between 7-8 to be safe, temperature keep between 22-28°C (mine is locked to 25°C). Some freshwater pipes need different parameters though so always be accurate in identification- mine were labelled as dwarf freshwater pipefish so found 'enneacampus ansorgii' the dwarf african pipefish and because they were under-coloured at first I also thought maybe 'microphis deocata' the rainbow bellied pipefish.
Most people know they have to have livefood but the shop that sold them to me just said 'they need lots of livefood and low flow'. They fed them daphnia only and I'm pretty sure lost all barring one other who I bought- 'Dracora' (I call her my little dragon lol) unsurprisingly will eat daphnia but the others only ate bbs so now I have the factory thing- a central chamber for freshwater phytoplankton (also always end up with loads paramecium) this feeds a chamber on each side of it for one minute a day. On one side theres a daphnia culture and on the other side is freshwater rotifers and also by accident some largeish strange stubby looking copepods. As a result there is also a huge bloom of the usual tiny copepods in the tank and also some cyclops. Also the tank is divided down the middle so they cant just munch their food sources out of existence. I did read somewhere that there aren't enough amino acids in freshwater livefoods so I still feed bbs but on a lower level- i just re-seed them and top them up when needed which is about once a week. use the daphnia to get the flow right- if they disappear overnight it's too high. I have a 12v pump on a programmable light controller set to absolute minimum in the night and a little higher in the day.
If you remember though I said I only have 1 but bought 5 in total so there was more tragedy. With all the livefood I had a planaria infestation happen and whilst treating it (with planaria zero) the oldest one (remember how I said they bond) came out without me seeing and must of thought I was feeding him and ate a bit before i could do anything, over the next 2 days I watched him dwindle and die which was absolutely heartbreaking (why I've blabbered on for so long).
Now I'm left with 'Dracora' who is fully coloured, fat, active and happy and has been for about 4 months. I do want to get another to keep her company but I think in maybe another 2 months or so to be sure and if I can get any.
I think you should try again but i would advise treating pre-emptively with planaria zero and making absolutely sure the 'Little dragons' you get are properly identified and make sure there is a myriad of different zoo-plankton ranging from phytoplankton to daphnia or even larger for different species.
I hope all this will help you and others to keep these amazing fish healthily and without all the tragedy I've experienced.

All the best.
Peter


----------

