Rainbow belly pipefish

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a fish for a calm, mature tank of its own, since it feeds slowly on live foods such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and small blackworms and cannot compete with quick tankmates. Frozen food acceptance is the exception rather than the rule, so plan on a steady live food supply. Keep a pair or a small group in around 75 liters of densely planted, gently filtered water. German bred fish appear in the trade now and then and settle in better than wild imports.

In the wild

The rainbow belly pipefish comes from clear, weedy streams and pools in the Ganges and Brahmaputra basins at the foot of the Himalayas, in northern India and Bangladesh. It hangs almost motionless among dense vegetation in slow, warm water. Recreate this with heavy planting including tall stem plants, fine sand, some tangled roots, and very gentle flow at 25 to 28 degrees Celsius with a pH of 6.8 to 7.8. Mature, stable water is essential, as with all pipefish.

Good to know

Microphis deocata belongs to Syngnathidae, the seahorse and pipefish family, and reaches about 15 centimeters. It is one of the few pipefish that spends its entire life in pure freshwater. Like its relatives it wears bony armor rings and feeds by sucking tiny prey through its tube snout. The male broods the eggs in a pouch under his trunk and releases fully formed young. The species is assessed as Near Threatened because of habitat decline in its home rivers.

Did you know

This pipefish reverses the showy sex: the female wears the ornament, a fold-out flap along her belly that flashes neon blue and orange in courtship, while the male carries the eggs.

Related species

• Barhead pipefish

  Microphis leiaspis

  7.5 in (19 cm)32 gal (120 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
• African red-striped pipefish

  Microphis aculeatus

  7.9 in (20 cm)32 gal (120 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Opossum pipefish

  Microphis brachyurus

  8.7 in (22 cm)32 gal (120 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Freshwater pipefish

  Doryichthys martensii

  5.9 in (15 cm)32 gal (120 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• African freshwater pipefish

  Enneacampus ansorgii

  5.5 in (14 cm)32 gal (120 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• Long-snouted pipefish

  Doryichthys boaja

  16.1 in (41 cm)53 gal (200 L)79–82°F (26–28°C)