Janss' Pipefish

Doryrhamphus janssi

Also known as Dentirostrum janssi, Flagtail Pipefish, Reef Pipefish

SaltwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–79°F (22–26°C)
pH: 8.1–8.4
Adult size: 5.5 in (14 cm)
Minimum tank: 50 gal (190 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Tankmates: Tankmates with caution
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: Hard
Rarity: Common
Reef safe: Reef safe with caution
Origin: Western Pacific, Gulf of Thailand to the Solomon Islands
Family: Syngnathidae

Overview

A pair will patrol its patch of rockwork all day, plucking tiny crustaceans, and like other syngnathids they feed slowly and need small meaty foods several times a day. Captive-bred fish take frozen mysis and baby brine but still belong in a calm tank without fast, greedy feeders.

In the wild

Lives on sheltered inner reefs of the western Pacific, from the Gulf of Thailand across to the Solomon Islands. Pairs keep to caves, undercuts and the shade beneath plate corals, from the shallows down to about 35 m.

Good to know

Like all pipefish the male does the brooding, carrying the eggs in a pouch under his tail until they hatch. It is one of the flagtail pipefish, free swimmers with a broad paddle of a tail fin rather than the grasping tail of a seahorse.

Did you know

In the wild this species runs a genuine cleaning station, and reef fish queue up so the pipefish can pick parasitic crustaceans off them, a job most people associate with cleaner wrasses.