A short banded pipefish that lies among rubble instead of out on open sand.
A small pipefish to about 9 cm, banded in brown, red-brown and cream, with a short snout for the family and small fleshy flaps scattered over the head and the trunk. The banding is broad and irregular and matches broken coral rubble closely. It is much shorter than the ridgenose and winged pipefishes it shares ground with, and it has neither the ridgenose’s raised snout ridge nor the winged pipefish’s large leaf-like appendages.
It lies among rubble, along the base of dead coral and in the gaps between broken pieces, usually flat against the substrate rather than upright. It does not move much, which means it is found by scanning a small area closely rather than by covering ground, and once found it will hold position while a camera comes in. Most animals are single; pairs occur.
The species is recorded from the western Pacific on rubble and coral bases from about 3 to 25 m. The published record is thin, and the depth range and abundance given here should be read as the range over which divers report it rather than as the species’ full range. Males carry the eggs on the underside of the tail, as in the rest of the family.
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.