Doryrhamphus janssi (Cleaner Pipefish)

[Rhygar666]

i got a pair of Janssi for more than a year now. Never had Problems eating frozen, dry flakes etc.
You can also See the Gender via the face the male Has Spikes on the upper side of his mouth the females dont.

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[ThRoewer]

My female has spikes, but less than the male.
The male has a clearly distinguishable pouch that is not present on the female - it's easy to see on these guys because they almost always swim with their bellies up.
So I'm kind of sure that I got a male and a female, but I may have a closer look again...

[Rhygar666]

I hope im allowed to upload a picture of a german internet site. not my picture but it got watermark. Helped me with the gender
heres a link to the internet site [URL][http://www.kimmich.ch/syngnathidae.htm/URL]

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[ThRoewer]

Originally I also thought that the spikes indicate males like with the Bluestripes, but at the store they had a bunch of them and all had spikes to some degree. Some were clearly males, but one looked like a female with no pouch.

The two also got along quite well for the time being... until a few days ago.

I will see that I catch the suspected female and have a closer look at its belly under the microscope.

If it turns out to be a male as well I will have to find two more females - as if it isn't hard enough to find these guys at all

[ThRoewer]

OK, I caught the one I originally though to be a female and now it had a clearly open belly pouch. It didn't have that when I got it so I suspect it was a young male where the pouch had not opened yet.

I moved that one to my 100 gallon tank - let's see how he gets along with the bluestripe male that's already in there for a while. There are enough caves and overhangs so I hope they get along.
When I tried to add one of my bluestripe pairs to the janssi it wasn't well received by the larger janssi male. So I had to take them out again.

[ThRoewer]

Well, the little bluestripe male did have some objections, though I still hope they will find an arrangement and get along. The tank should be large enough for two species...

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[ThRoewer]

The little bluestripe is near constantly harassing the janssi. He can't do really any damage, just make sure that the janssi doesn't get any peace and quiet time during the day.
The tank would easily be large enough for the both of them, but both seem to want the same coral branch to make their home... : headwally:

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[electronaught]

Crimeny. Bummer that they are causing so much trouble.

I'm very interested in seeing how things go when you find a female to pair up with whichever male works out.

[ThRoewer]

[ThRoewer]

Found a small female at the LFS today.
She came with a badly frayed tailfin and some ich so I have her for now in hyposalinity and antibiotic treatment with a pair of Dragon Faced pipefish and a Tiger Jawfish male that all came from the same system at the store.

[ThRoewer]

Well, seems the little bluesripe has finally realized that it can't do much against the larger janssi. At least the last few days it didn't harass the janssi.

I have a female for the bluesripe that is almost through quarantine now, but I may wait adding her until the janssi female is ready to be added as well. That way the balance isn't tipped to one side.

[ThRoewer]

Here how the one male in the 100 gallon reef tank is doing:



Originally I was afraid I would hardly see him, but he is actually almost always out.

[ThRoewer]

I got a female 2 weeks ago, but that came with fin-rot and a chunk of skin fouled away on her back so that the bony plates are exposed. So no idea if she will make it.
Yesterday I found two little ones that have no spikes on their noses, but I think they may just be too small to be reliability sexed. One of those was hanging out with a larger male while the other one kept initially on its own but joined the other two. I took both of the small - let's see what becomes of them. With some luck they will turn out to be females. Otherwise I will need to find them a new home.

As for my established males - I noticed quite a difference in behavior:
The one that has basically his own tank is very reclusive and just hangs out under the rock shelf.
The one in the 100 gallon tank on the other hand is out and swimming around all day long.
Based on this I would say that they do better in a reef tank with other fish than in a species tank.

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[ostrow]

Say I read that PE MYSIS may be too big. Which brand do you use?

[ThRoewer]

Hikari, the large plates. Though mysis in the last batch I bought were a bit on the large side as well.
But it seems that the janssi have no real problem to suck them down either, not even my smallest. The bluestripe pipefish also don't mind the somewhat larger size. The fish that really don't like this batch are my Sumatra Regal Angels and my Australian Starcki damsel - those three prefer pellets and flakes.

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[ostrow]

Thanks. The package calls them 'Jumbo'! If I'm looking at the right ones (DFS 16oz flat pack).

[ostrow]

Finally have a lead on a pair.

What is best method for acclimating and transferring these guys?

Long slow drip?

Several hours?

I presume nets are tabboo?

[ThRoewer]

Nets are OK as long as you are careful.

I usually do drip acclimatization, but if salinity, pH and temperature match you may as well just drop them in.
I always give them a Formalin bath before they go into the QT.

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[ostrow]

Well I got two. No way can I tell if they are a pair but they hang together. One is much larger than the other. They like each other and nobody bothering them.

[ostrow]

It won't let me edit. Not sure what happened. Here we try again!



But, sadly, the larger one is AWOL this morning. Smaller one actually ate some mysis!

[ThRoewer]

Where did you get them from?
As for the hiding, they are extremely good at that. These guys can make themselves nearly invisible even in an empty tank.
If they stop being together it may be an indicator that you got 2 of the same sex.
I've had males getting along as long as one of them was still immature (pouch hasn't opened yet), but the moment both were mature they started fighting which usually leads to the smaller one going into hiding.

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[ostrow]

Jeremy Brower got em for me (Modern Aquatix) I am not sure the wholesaler but I think SDC. I expected the little guy to be more skittish but nope.

Your guy is still looking for me, if one or both of these don't make it I will hit him up when he gets back to me. Great guy for sure.

[ostrow]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yr4xdhsnre...%20PM.mov?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzt8xlpb4x...%20PM.mov?dl=0

Sorry about the second half of the longer one. Both have eaten pods and mysis (as far as I can tell).

[Bratyboy2]

Any updates?

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[ThRoewer]

One thing I can tell so far is that these guys are relatively slow growing. Neither of my 3 has added significant length during the time I have them and none of them is by any means fully grown. The first male is now close to a year with me and in a 20 gallon tank. The small female is in there too, but despite fighting down large mysis it hasn't grown significantly.
The single male I have in my 100 gallon reef tank is the one I would have expected to grow fastest, but there isn't much either.
All my bluestripe pipefish were pretty much fully grown after a year.
If this slow growth is normal and not caused by some stunning factor then it is likely that these guys live longer than the 3 years you normally get out of bluestripe pipefish.

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