Mushroom Coral Pipefish
| Mushroom Coral Pipefish | ||||||||||||
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Mushroom coral pipefish on an anemone mushroom coral |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Siokunichthys nigrolineatus | ||||||||||||
| Dawson , 1983 |
The mushroom coral pipefish ( Siokunichthys nigrolineatus ) is a small species of pipefish found in the western Pacific in the coastal coral reefs of Indonesia , the Philippines and New Guinea . It lives in small groups between the tentacles of mushroom corals (Fungiidae). Their preferred habitat is in water depths of ten to twenty meters, especially near lagoons and at the base of small elevations in inner reefs, where large amounts of plankton-rich water flow past when the tide changes .
features
The worm-like fish are a maximum of eight centimeters long, have a very short snout that is almost as high as it is long, and a strongly overlying, almost vertical mouth. The lower jaw, when viewed from the side, is high and inside scoop-shaped or concave. The trunk is surrounded by 15 rings of bone plates, the tail has 53 to 55 rings. The base of the dorsal fin begins on the first through second bone rings of the tail. It is supported by 30 to 32 fin rays. The small pectoral fins have ten to twelve fin rays.
The mushroom coral pipefish are almost completely white. The only color marking is a horizontal, narrow, blackish line that first runs across the eyes, then kinks down and ends near the corner of the mouth. This black line led to the designation with the specific epithet nigrolineatus .
Reproduction
Like all pipefish, they are oviparous and care for the brood . The eggs, measuring a maximum of 0.9 mm in diameter, are taken over by the male after being laid by the female, in order to carry them in two rows on the underside of the tail, which has been changed like a sponge. The egg-bearing part of the tail extends over 14 to 20 tail rings. The larvae are about 7 mm long after hatching.
literature
- Rudie H. Kuiter : Seahorses, pipefish, shredded fish and their relatives , 2001, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8001-3244-3
- CE Dawson: Synopsis of the Indo-Pacific Pipefish Genus Siokunichthys (Syngnathidae), with Description of S. nigrolineatus n. Sp. Pacific Science (1983), vol. 37, no. 1 PDF
Web links
- Mushroom coral pipefish on Fishbase.org (English)
- clearer photos [1] , [2] , [3] .
- Siokunichthys nigrolineatus in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: Fritzsche, R., Matsuura, K., Collette, B., Nelson, J., Dooley, J., Carpenter, K., Bartnik, S., Robinson, E. & Morgan, SK, 2009. Retrieved on February 9, 2014.