The plain, slender ghost pipefish, usually in pairs against a sea whip or a crinoid.
The slimmest of the ghost pipefish, to about 10 cm, with a long straight snout, a narrow body and none of the skin filaments that fringe the ornate and the robust species. Colour is usually a plain translucent brown, olive or reddish, sometimes with fine dark speckling, and it takes its shade from whatever it is hanging beside. The tail fin is proportionally long and pointed. Where the ornate ghost pipefish looks like a piece of feather star and the robust one like a blade of weed, this one looks like a stick.
Hangs head-down and almost motionless against sea whips, black coral, crinoids and the stems of rubble growth, usually as a pair — a larger female and a smaller male, which is the pattern across the family. Females brood the eggs in a pouch formed by the fused pelvic fins, a structure no other fish family has. Ghost pipefish arrive at a site as settling juveniles, hold for weeks and then vanish, so their presence is seasonal and local rather than dependable. Recorded from about 5 to 30 m.
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.