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Home › Sea Wildlife › Marine Species › Vertebrates › Pipefishes

Interesting Facts about Pipefishes

[Pipefish Phylum: Chordata] [Class: Actinopterygii] [Order: Syngnathiformes] [Family: Syngnathidae]

The diverse family Syngnathinae contains several hundred different species of small straight-bodied or pipe-shaped fishes, which also includes seahorses and seadragons

This section contains information about 300 acknowledged species of pipefish, including where they live, what they eat, and how they reproduce.

Pipefishes Geographical Range and Habitats

The preference for life in tropical and subtropical ocean waters means the common places to find many of the pipefish species are:

• Indo-Pacific regions (especially the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand)
• Oceania (e.g. Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands)
• The Red Sea (including the African part of Egypt)
• Parts of the Atlantic Ocean (including the Mediterranean Sea)

They tend to inhabit coastal coral reef formations or rubble zones, and live near shallow seagrass beds, mangrove roots, and kelp forests.

Pro Tip: Even though most pipefishes are marine dwellers, river and stream pipefishes (e.g. genus Microphis) do exist in brackish and even freshwater environments, the long-snouted pipefish (Doryichthys boaja) for example.

Pipefish Characteristics and Behaviour

Some of the distinctive key features and behavioural traits of pipefishes vary between the solitary specimens, and those which spend their lives in groups.

Even so, having an elongated slender body shape is a general characteristic of their unique structure. The snout is long and tubular, and there are no teeth inside the small upward opening mouth.

But wait - there's more:

Pipefishes use their tiny dorsal fin for propulsion and strong pectoral fins help to increase maneuverability. Unlike most vertebrate fishes, pipefish have an armour plated skeleton but they do not have pelvic fins.

It's fair to say that most of the Syngnathidae family members are camouflage experts. Most of the species have stripped or spotted body patterns and drab colouration (usually brown and green) that is a perfect match for life among seagrass, algal species, and corals.

Pipefish Size and Weight

One of the smallest of pipefish species is Minyichthys myersi, and it rarely grows more than two (2) centimetres long (less than one inch).

By comparison, Syngnathoides biaculeatus ranks among the biggest still in existence, growing up to sixty three centimetres long (25 inches).

Nonetheless, the average adult pipefish will reach an overall length ranging between ten (10) and thirty five (35) centimetres after full maturity, and most of the pipefish species weigh only a few grams.

Pro Tip: One of the key features that helps to distinguish pipefishes is the way they swim. They usually swim at a slight angle - or completely upright. As a consequence, they are poor swimmers over long distances and often drift with the prevailing water currents if they get displaced.

What Do Pipefish Eat?

Pipefish are carnivorous ambush predators that use a deadly technique known as "suction feeding" to capture their prey, such as:

• Copepods
• Crustaceans
• Fish eggs (including larvae)
• Mysid shrimp
• Zooplankton

In fact, they're unable to chase any potential victims over long distances.

So, from a motionless stance, they use a method of stealth to snap up small organisms.

Interesting Fact: One of the close relatives of pipefishes is the seahorse (genus Hippocampus). Another section explains why seahorses are deadly predators and how a marine nature science study confirmed them as stone-cold ferocious killers.

Pipefish Species List

How Do Pipefish Reproduce?

The pipefish reproductive process occurs in the same way as their seahorse relatives, meaning it's the males of the species that carry the developing young.

Pipefish Courtship

It's common for pipefishes to change body colour during the mating ritual. The swimming movements in courtship are slow and synchronised, and often involve a degree of "snout touching".

The mating period can last only a few brief minutes or several days, depending on actual species of pipefish. Even though many species will mate as pairs and stay together throughout the breeding period, it's not unheard of for a single female to make herself available to a group of eligible males.

Transferring the Eggs

A female will deposit her eggs into a specialised brooding zone on the male. This may be a fully enclosed brood pouch, an open ventral surface, or abdominal grooves. No matter which method is being used, the male pipefish fertilises the eggs once they've been placed inside the pouch.

Here's the thing:

The brood pouch of the male can complete several important roles. Besides delivering oxygen to the embryos (by a capillary network), it also provides nutrients, and it removes waste from the developing embryos.

Depending on several factors, especially the water temperature and the species, the embryos will remain inside the male's pouch for at least ten (10) days and up to several weeks.

Giving Birth

During the birthing process, the male performs muscular contractions that help to expel the juveniles, which are fully formed at this stage. Young pipefish emerge as miniature adults, and there will be no parental care afterward.

Threats and Predators

In the wild, pipefishes have several natural predators, especially groupers, lionfish, large wrasses, and snappers.

They also fall victim to some cephalopods, such as cuttlefish and big squids, and they can be a tasty meal for sea snakes in Indo-Pacific regions.

In addition, some human-induced threats to their survival include:

• Climate change (resulting in varying degrees of coral bleaching).
• Overharvesting in some Asian areas (used in traditional medicine).
• Underwater garbage pollution.
• Habitat degradation and destruction (e.g. mangrove clearance for aquaculture).

Pro Tip: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessed many of the pipefish family as being of "Least Concern" (LC). However, they list the Andaman pipefish (Microphis insularis) as "Vulnerable" (VU) and Patagonian pipefish (Leptonotus vincentae) as "Critically Endangered" (CR).

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