Re: NANFA-- Syngnathus sp

sorinus (sorin_at_imajis.com)
Tue, 23 Jan 2001 17:04:11 -0500

Brian, see my previous posting. If chemistry is right, which seems to be
in your case, because you already keep Hippocampus in the same tank,
then probably food is the main issue, as posted by Nick Zarlinga.
Make sure they eat live food. They may need some hidding places or some
comfort like this, but having a full blown marine (full salinity) tank
will limit you heavily at what algae/plants you can keep. In a brakish
tank I used to keep easily Zanichellia, Potamogeton, ans splendid clamps
of Cladophora algae. But then you have to give plants a lot of light and
so on and so on. check salinity of the habitat you collect your
syngnathids and try to keep the same in the tank. Indeed some Syngnathus
are very eurihaline, but they also have an optimal salinity they may
thrive in. It is a mistery for me how easily some species adapt from 35
mg/l salts to plain freshwater. Some people today are doing phisiology
studies on pipefishes to understand the adaptation mechanisms. Those
mecahnisms seems to be similar to the ones used by land crabs
(Coenobita), who can concentrate their haemolimph.
regards
sorin

Brian Bastarache wrote:
>
> I have kept many northern pipefish, S. fuscus. They can be found in very
> diluted salt water of estuaries, but Rego and I most often collect them in
> the ocean. I have a hard time keeping them. I keep them with seahorses
> (Hippocampus erectus) we collect. The seahorses usually do fine. I had
> one for over a year. Given that they only live for 3-4 years and we have
> only collected adults, I was happy with that "longevity". The pipes wither
> and surcum over 4-6 months on the same diet, in the same tank!
>
> I thought seahorses were the difficult ones! We can collect them. They
> are neat and I would love to have the on display in the museum, but I have
> no need to sacrifice any more. Anyone have any info?
>
> Brian Bastarache
> NANFA- New England
> Bristol County Natural History Center
>
> At 05:39 AM 1/21/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >I have one question:
> >Is any freshwater Syngnathus species in North America? If yes does
> >anyone succeeded to photograph the courtship sequences?
> >Thanks sorin damian
> >
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/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org