PIPEFISH

Family Sygnathidae

LONG-SNOUT SEA HORSE

Hippocampus ramulosus

In Roman mythology, Neptune’s chariot was drawn by beautiful white sea horses and their name is from the Greek hippos meaning ‘horse’ and kampe meaning ‘worm’ or ‘caterpillar’. This curious fish has a horse-shaped head set at an angle to the body, the trunk of which is generally short and fat tapering to a long prehensile tail. It grows to a maximum of 15cm (6in) and is usually found in its life-long mating pairs. Sea horses feed on small shrimp and other tiny plank-tonic crustacea, picking at them with their long snouts ‘hoovering’ them into their mouths. Ecology: Sea horses enjoy algae-covered rocks and seagrass meadows in well-illuminated and aerated water. They move infrequently making them difficult to spot and owing to their nature of having bits of algae on their long fringed ‘mane’, this only enhances their already excellent camouflage.

PIPEFISH

Sygnathus acus

Pipefish are a closely related species to sea horses and, as the name implies, grow long and thin with tube-like bodies over 45cm (1ft 6in) long. The snout is more than half of the head length and there is a distinct lump on the head behind the eyes. The body is ridged with obvious scaly plates. The dorsal fin is set near the rear of the body and has no anal or pelvic fins. Ecology: Seen fairly regularly throughout the region, they are however difficult to spot as they lie along algae fronds, rendering them almost invisible.