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dragonface pipefish

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I read that these are known to eat the acro red bugs (about as much as a leopard wrasse is known to eat red flat worms....)

We found the little red/yellow nasties on a couple of our corals this afternoon, took out abut half a dozen and dipped em, baster blasted and put them back... so far so good, but I know there are more. It is odd since the bugs seemed to pick and choose the corals to infect. I checked the majority of the corals in tank with the ogles mesoscope, and the corals I could remove with a regular magnifying glass (plastic framed and kept by the tank for just this purpose). The heaviest infestation was from an LFS bought frag, from back before we religiously dipped and inspected all corals (ahhh, the good old blissfully ignorant days.....).

Wanting to give the pipefish a run in both the prop and main display tank, but not having alot of luck finding them in stock.. anyone have any direct experience with these fish and the red bugs ? or know of an LFS that has any in stock ? Thanks :)

http://ww.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=282

P.S. I am well aware of the husbandry requirements for the pipefish. I have done tons of research on them and this species in particular. Just to note that before anyone asks :)
 
The local wholesalers get them in nearly weekly, have your favorite LFS order you one.
 
Don't have a favorite LFS... and the closest geographically is famous for "not being able to get any in" for just about anything I ask about, even when other stores in the area do/can. :). I should just call James and see if he can get us some and bite the bullet and make the drive down there again....
 
I have not seen any evidence that any pipefish eats red bugs. I had red bugs and dragon faced pipes at the same time. IMO, this is another of those wishful thinking rumors regarding biological controls.
 
agreed paul.. this pipefish coupled with dips will hopefully help us get them under control. But the pipefish alone are not the solution (just a part of it).

Thanks for the heads up about Octopus Garden.. going to have to look them up (mapblast and give them a call to see if any in stock this week). Thanks again :)
 
They are listed as a local resource on the bar site. And I personaly treated my whole tank and completly rid myself of the red bugs
 
yea, but there are too many good micro fauna that I am not willing to sacrifice. Not to mention that our dragon wrasse and mandarin would most likley starve to death after an interceptor treatment....
 
Let us know if dips and a pipefish work. I nuked my tank and was very happy w/ the results but it sure did kill ALL the mysids and copepods.-Jim
 
prodman said:
I have read that the banded pipefish will eat them. But not that its a cure to the red bugs.
Click to expand...

So have I, but only from hobbyists who say they heard from someone else. Has anyone seen any real evidence? From what I have seen, this pipefish eating redbugs seems like a old reefers tale.

I would love to be wrong about this BTW. :D
 
picked up a pair of these pipe fish this afternoon from Octopus's Garden in Berkley (Thanks Paul for the heads up about them). Got the fish acclimated and into our prop tank where they almost immediately started in on the 'pod population there. So far they have not gone near any of the corals/frags, at least not that I witnessed, but it is still early :). I did see them eating cyclopeez in the store, so I know at the very least I can keep them alive between the 'fuge and 'peez :).

As for dips, we dipped about half a dozen frags 2 days ago and inspected at least twice that many. We don't appear to be "plagued" as of yet, but are trying to head that off before it happens. We did notice that the bugs appeared to pick and choose the corals to inhabit. mutliple frags of the same time would get the bugs while another similar acro frag right next to them would not. Hopefully the pipefish will at least put a dent in the red bug population.

Also, I noticed that a strong seachem reef dip dip did not kill the bugs. After the dip (and rinse in a separate bucket of tank water) we inspected them and about 30% of the time a second dip and even more "turkey baster blasting" was required to produce a "bug free" coral (at least visibly bug free :)). Using an interceptor dip would definitely be preferred. Not soo sure I can talk our vet into parting with any though, but will try the next time we take our dogs in for their checkup. Does anyone know of an online vet pharmacy, or other location, where interceptor can be purchased ?
 
I read that Eric B used a very strong lugols dip for a very short duration (minutes, at most) to "cure" individual colonies. Of course this does not address the tank wide infestation issue(s). It was also noted that the red bugs were witnessed to be very good swimmers, especially when a frag or colony was being remove from the tank, the bugs would swim off of it to the next nearest acro.

As for the pipefish, they have been in our prop tank for almost a week now. They are eating weel, but most likely the pod population that was in there and not the red bugs. I have seen them picking around some known infected frags, but the red bug population is not visibly declining. I have already ordered and recieved shipment of interceptor, but am still holding off starting the treatment. I still plan (if I follow through with using it) to coincide the treatment with the move to the new tank, using the new tank as a holding tank for pod heavy macros and baserock during the 3 week long interceptor treatment).
 
we got a pair of the dragon face ones since they were the ones I had read about. I wanted a banded (or one of each), but the dragon faced ones looked healthier
 
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