A small banded pipefish that lies in rubble and algae and is normally seen only when it moves.
To 15 cm. The snout is very short for a pipefish, which is the quickest way to name it, and the ridges along the body are prominent, notched and finely toothed. There are two colour schemes: black and white banded, or barred in yellow, white and brown. Up to nine colour phases have been described, and some workers think the pattern differences may mark separate species.
The other small Caribbean pipefish are separated by the snout. Theirs is long and slender, around half the length of the head; this one’s is stubby.
It lives on the bottom in pockets of coral rubble on white sand, in low coral growth, often near sea fans, and also in seagrass and coarse sand, between about half a metre and 22 m. The male carries the eggs in a pouch under his tail.
Two open points. The genus is unsettled: some authorities place it in Micrognathus and others in Halicampus. And the Florida record is weak — the range as usually given runs from Bermuda and the Bahamas to Brazil, with the species stated to be absent from the Gulf of Mexico apart from one Mexican record.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
