Lost A Pipefish

[Squishie89]

I have lost 4 fish previously in my tank. A mandarin due to an unknown weird disease, a mandarin possibly due to lack of food, a blenny and a copperband from cucumber toxin. Now I have lost my 5th, a dragonface pipefish. I was doing my nightly check and I could find 1 pipefish but not the other, but I finally found him behind a piece of fake coral passed away. (I have a mandarin and another pipefish doing great so lack of food is most likely not the issue.) I had this pair for just over a year now. These guys have a lot of personality and have their own quirks, this little guy will be greatly missed.

 

I do plan to get the remaining pipefish another companion and these fish are very social and really enjoy having friends (this is at least my experience). I am going to wait until after the rebuild so I do not stress them out too much and have one less fish to worry about. I believe I have a female remaining given that she is larger, I am going to look more at her anatomy tomorrow in the light. If I remember correctly it does not matter if you put 2 male or 2 female together for these guys. Do I have that right?

Edited October 24, 2014 by Squishie89

[paul b]

With dragonface pipefish it doesn't seem to matter if you have two males or females,  I know bluestripes will fight but not dragonfaces.  

[Squishie89]

With dragonface pipefish it doesn't seem to matter if you have two males or females, I know bluestripes will fight but not dragonfaces.

That is what I thought. Thanks so much Paul.

[Seahorseconservancy]

they don't live long? old age?

[Squishie89]

they don't live long? old age?

I am really not sure what the cause of death is. I do know he was smaller and paler than his mate, I have no idea if this is a symptom or just a coincidence (I thought he might be smaller and paler because he was the male as I had heard females are larger). There were no obvious problems. As far as I know he was not very old, probably less than a year when I got him.