Cold and temperate sea fish

Longsnout Pipefish

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Identity card

Longsnout Pipefish

Scientific name:: Syngnathus acus

Family:: Syngnathidae

Class:: Actinopterygii

Phylum:: Chordata

Year of description:: Linnaeus, 1758

IUCN Status:: Least Concern

CITES-status:: Not evaluated

Distribution:: It inhabits the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Scandinavia to South Africa.

Habitat:: The longsnout pipefish lives in calm waters, on a variety of seabeds, whether sandy, rocky or detrital.

Size:: It measures 30 to 50 cm. This species is ovoviviparous.

Diet:: It feeds on small planktonic crustaceans which it sucks in with its snout.

Where can I find it at Nausicaá?

Mankind and Shores

4 Stopovers in the Mediterranean

400, this is the number of eggs contained in the male's ventral pouch.

It is very precise when it eats: it slowly approaches tiny shrimps that are handed to it and then sucks them in with a quick, brisk stroke.

It is extremely proficient at camouflaging itself in sand and algae.

Did you know?

Where is the animal to be found?

The longsnout pipefish lives in calm waters, on a variety of seabeds, whether sandy, rocky or detrital, as well as among algae and seagrass beds. It also appreciates the brackish waters of estuaries.

How can it be recognised?

This fish has an elongated and very slender body and looks like an uncoiled seahorse. The longsnout pipefish can change its appearance so that it can be camouflaged against the various backgrounds where it lives motionless.
Its snout, which resembles a pipette, is longer than the rest of the head.
It measures 30 to 50 cm.

What is distinctive about it?

The longsnout pipefish is ovoviviparous, it breeds in the summer. Like seahorses, the male keeps the eggs in its ventral pocket for 5 weeks until they hatch.
As it is polygamous, it can incubate the eggs of different females.