FW Pipefish ID

I just picked up a pipefish from the LFS today. He has been there for a few weeks. There were originally three, but one had some cloudy eye problem (the boss told me that the company messed up that order and they were in a warehouse for a day before shipping) and another one never started eating. So this is the only surviving one and he has been weaned onto frozen brine shrimp and bloodworm at work.

I am thinking he is African, but I am not sure about the exact species. Does anybody have any ideas on what he could be?

saram521 said:

I was curious myself, so I did a quick search and I believe it's a Doryichthys boaja. Says this species is from countries in Asia, grows to almost 2' and seems to be completely freshwater, according to fishbase.org. Not sure that what you have pictured is the same species, but they look very similar.

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You are right. I was trying to ID it from the upturned mouth and long snout as well as the clear cut color pattern. I saw that one, but the pictures on fishbase were pretty bad. I googled it, and now I am sure that it's a boaja.

There are much better pictures of one (not mine) http://www.aquatic-photography.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10719 there.

Thank you for the ID!

Today I just found him dead in the tank.

I am thinking it is because I didn't have enough current. At work, he came in eating only live BS, but he eventually started eating frozen and bloodworm. When I got home, the tank wasn't nearly as violent as the water at work and he was eating less enthusiastically. I am guessing because he still thought the food at work was live.

Chrisinator said:

I'm not sure if I'm correct but I hear they are extremely sensitive fish to keep.

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You are correct. Most of the pipefish I have seen in LFS die within a week or two. Very few people actually buy them.

I was keeping pristine water conditions, but these guys only really eat live swimming foods and there isn't a constant supply of live adult BS so at the store we weaned it onto brine/mysis shrimp and bloodworm by squirting in some near the outlet of the sponge filter. At home though I cannot create these unbelievable crazy currents that we can make at work so he started eating less since most of the food wasn't in the current long enough to dance until he reached it and stared at it to verify authenticity and then eat.