Long-tailed ghost pipefish
| Long-tailed ghost pipefish | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Solenostomus armatus | ||||||||||||
| Weber , 1913 |
The long-tailed ghost pipefish ( Solenostomus armatus ) is the rarest species of the ghost pipefish family (Solenostomidae). It is known only from a few places in the tropical western Pacific , including the Arafura Sea and the Fiji Islands .
features
The long-tailed ghost pipefish becomes six to twelve centimeters long. It has a conspicuous, elongated, tubular snout. His body is armored by a total of 33 to 35 bone plates. The number of vertebrae is 32 to 33. The first dorsal fin is supported by five fin spines, the second, like the anal fin, by 20 to 22 soft rays. The caudal stalk and the caudal fin are long. The color and pattern of the animals are variable, dark colored ones often show reticulated yellow or orange spots on a dark red base color, light long-tailed ghost pipefish are yellow to beige with a few dark spots. There are two large black spots between the first and third spines of the first dorsal fin.
Way of life
Long-tailed ghost pipefish live true to their location over muddy bottoms at depths of up to 95 meters. As with all ghost pipefish, the females carry their spawn around with them in a brood pouch that they form from the ventral fins that are pressed together.
literature
- Rudie H. Kuiter : Seahorses, pipefish, shredded fish and their relatives , 2001, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8001-3244-3
- James Wilder Orr and Ronald A. Fritzsche: Revision of the ghost pipefishes, family Solenostomidae (Teleostei: Syngnathoidei). Copeia 1993, 1, pp. 168-182, 1993 abstract (English)
Web links
- Long-tailed ghost pipefish on Fishbase.org (English)