The Puffer Forum

Hey All

I just picked up some of these very interesting fish, they are currently in a ten gallon planted species only tank. You dont see much of these tiny little guys, but when you do, it is completely worth it, and a planted tank always looks nice anyway . Pics are a bit hard as they are about 1" long and as thin as a toothpick. They have been eating newly hatched bbs, moina and whatever micro-organisms, and planaria are in there( many because its a older tank). They are also starting to eat super finely chopped frozen bloodworms, and frozen cyclops.

They have a very timid temperament and they aren't active hunters, but they have some very interesting habits, all the males have formed little territories, and when they hunt for food i have seen them do barrel rolls to catch it. I suppose this is to expend as little energy as possible as they dont seem to have much place for fat reserves. Well just thought you might be interested. Here are some pics i found online. I will have my own blurry not so great pics soon.
http://www.hexazona.com/images/miscella ... sh373a.jpg
http://www.hexazona.com/images/miscella ... ish373.jpg
http://aquaclonny.small-projects.de/wp- ... dilus1.jpg
http://www.amazonas-magazin.de/fileadmi ... odilus.jpg
PS: I purchased them from wetspotcx on aquabid. They are very good communicators and the shipping was good too.

Cut lil fella! Cool name too!

Thanks PP

So here are my pics sorry about the quality. I need a good macro lens.

Very interesting little guys. Very cool.

Wow how beautiful! May I ask how much you bought them for?

briguy44 wrote:Very interesting little guys. Very cool.

Thanks. They are really interesting. Most of the time they stay in their crevices, but every once in a while you'll see them hitched to a plant or piece of decor, or even hanging strait up in the water looking for food. About once a day the largest of them does a little tour of the tank, I suppose he's making sure they all know their place .

Lil' Swimz$ wrote:Wow how beautiful! May I ask how much you bought them for?

Thanks. No problem,the auction was 6 for $36. Are you thinking of purchasing some? if so i would only recommend them if you can readily provide tiny live foods, and have a small older planted species tank. The one plus to these guys over pipefish is they dont eat as much being much smaller, and can feed on tiny micro-organisms already in you tank(though it should by no means be the only food, its just a plus).

How big do they get?

Pufferpunk wrote:How big do they get?

Max size a whopping......1" maybe a little more.

Rusty wrote:

briguy44 wrote:Very interesting little guys. Very cool.

Thanks. They are really interesting. Most of the time they stay in their crevices, but every once in a while you'll see them hitched to a plant or piece of decor, or even hanging strait up in the water looking for food. About once a day the largest of them does a little tour of the tank, I suppose he's making sure they all know their place .

Lil' Swimz$ wrote:Wow how beautiful! May I ask how much you bought them for?

Thanks. No problem,the auction was 6 for $36. Are you thinking of purchasing some? if so i would only recommend them if you can readily provide tiny live foods, and have a small older planted species tank. The one plus to these guys over pipefish is they dont eat as much being much smaller, and can feed on tiny micro-organisms already in you tank(though it should by no means be the only food, its just a plus).

I have a mature, old planted 5 gallon but I don't have a constant source of micro food. Darn. I may have some artemia (sp?) hiding around in the java moss, but do things like that come frozen at LFS's?

That is an awesome lil fishy!!
Nice pick-up! Thanks for sharing

Lil' Swimz$ wrote: I have a mature, old planted 5 gallon but I don't have a constant source of micro food. Darn. I may have some artemia (sp?) hiding around in the java moss, but do things like that come frozen at LFS's?

sorry for taking so long to respond. I have been away.

Yes many lfs sell frozen babybrine shrimp, and many online places have artificial micro foods. Some people have had some success eventually weaning them on to these foods, but you really would need to setup some type of live cultures( moina, micro worms) at the very minimum in the beginning. I have begun target feeding frozen cyclops and diced bloodworms during the live artemia nauplii feeding's with some success. I would only recommend these if you can and will give live foods daily. I doubt you have much artemia in there as they tend not to live very long after the osmotic shock and would probably be to big if they were there. Do an honest appraisal of your current situation, if you have the ability to care( live foods, time, setup, etc) and the desire for tiny fish, they are awesome.

Just yesterday i did a water change and moved some stuff about. Well needless to say there was a sudden abundance of planaria, and all of them came out and started eating in one area. It was very cool. Of course my brother was visiting and made a few jokes about finally having proof of life in the tank( then muttered something about Mars being next), but later admitted that when you can actually see them they are very cool . So far i have been able to sex out at least one male and three females, with the other two being not quite mature yet. The male is very territorial, even fighting the others off his driftwood crevice. he doesn't seem to be able to do much damage though with such a tiny mouth, and being armored. I'm planning on adding some small pvc tubes soon to see if i can get them spawning. Will keep you all updated, more pics soon.

Next on my list pipefish.

L!$A
As usual your servant

Thank you.