Page 358 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

356 ANIMAL LIFE

ORDER SYNGNATHIFORMES It is hard to imagine anything less seahorses, the leafy seadragon has a hard, rather like a person would on a
fishlike than the leafy seadragon. similar, but much longer, tubular snout. drinking straw. The leafy seadragon
Leafy Seadragon The bizarre tassels and frills that This is an effective feeding tool—the lives on rocky, seaweed-covered reefs
adorn its head and body form a fish aims its snout at and in seagrass beds. Unlike seahorses,
Phycodurus eques spectacular camouflage that fools both a small shrimp it cannot coil its tail around an object.
LENGTH predators and prey. Even its body and and then sucks It moves very slowly and sways with
14 in (35 cm) tail are bent and twisted to resemble the waves, mimicking the seaweed.
WEIGHT seaweed stems. Closely related to Like seahorses and pipefish, the female
Not recorded deposits her eggs in a brood pouch
DEPTH under the male’s tail and he carries
13–100 ft (4–30 m) them until they hatch.
DISTRIBUTION Eastern Indian Ocean, along the
southern coast of Australia

ORDER SYNGNATHIFORMES hunts by lying in wait to ambush ORDER SYNGNATHIFORMES The harlequin ghost pipefish looks as
passing shoals of fish, but it is also though it has wings attached to the
Trumpetfish known to follow predatory Harlequin Ghost sides of its long, thin body. In reality,
fish such as moray eels and these are greatly enlarged pelvic fins
Aulostomus maculatus steal some of the fish that Pipefish in which the female broods her eggs.
LENGTH they flush from their The fins are modified to form a
Up to 3 ft (1 m) hiding places. Solenostomus paradoxus pouch, where the eggs remain until
LENGTH
WEIGHT they hatch. This uncommon species
Not recorded 5 in (12 cm) occurs in a wide variety of bright
WEIGHT
DEPTH colors and patterns that mimic the
7–80 ft (2–25 m) Not recorded reef feather stars and black corals
DEPTH
DISTRIBUTION Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and among which it lives. It also often
subtropical waters of western Atlantic Not recorded swims head-down and so gains further
DISTRIBUTION Tropical reefs in Indian Ocean and camouflage by aligning its body with
western and southwestern Pacific
The trumpetfish looks like a piece the branches among which it swims.
of drifting wood, hiding itself among
sea fans and other corals. It has a long,
slender, straight body, and when it ORDER SYNGNATHIFORMES
flares open its mouth, its long snout
resembles a thin trumpet. The Short-snouted
trumpetfish is usually brown, but some
individuals have a yellow body. It Seahorse
Hippocampus hippocampus
ORDER SYNGNATHIFORMES a minute tail fin. However, like all LENGTH
6 in (15 cm)
pipefish and seahorses, its head is
Snake Pipefish drawn out into a distinctive tubular WEIGHT
snout for sucking up small floating Not recorded
Entelurus aequoreus crustaceans and fish fry. Pipefish have DEPTH
16–200 ft (5–60 m)
LENGTH no scales but, instead, the body is
Up to 24 in (60 cm) encased in segmented bony armor DISTRIBUTION Temperate and subtropical waters of
northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean
WEIGHT lying beneath the skin.
The snake pipefish has an orange-
Not recorded brown body with pale blue bands. In the seahorse world, it is the males
OCEAN LIFE DISTRIBUTION Temperate waters of northeastern well camouflaged. The female lays elaborate courtship dance, the female
DEPTH
It lives among seaweed, where it is
that give birth to the young. After an
33–330 ft (10–100 m)
lays her eggs in a special pouch on
several hundred eggs into a shallow
Atlantic
the male’s belly. The pouch seals over
pouch along the male’s belly during
until the eggs hatch and the tiny baby
the summer. The eggs develop in the
At first sight, the snake pipefish could
pouch and the young are released
easily be mistaken for a small sea
seahorses emerge. This species is
snake. It has a long, smooth, rounded
distinguished by its short snout, which
when they are about /2 in (1 cm) long,
1
but before they are fully developed.
is less than a third of the head length.
body tapering to a thin tail with