Date:August 5th, 8:00am
Today's fish of the day is the blue spotted pipefish
The blue spotted pipefish, also known as the bluespeckled pipefish, and scientific name Hippichthys cyanospilos, is a common shoreline marine fish. Found in and around the tropical and subtropical regions of the Indo pacific in both marine, and freshwater environments. Their range stretches from the Eastern shore of Africa, and further East along the Persian Gulf before their range extends from as far North as Southern Japan islands, then across much of the Philippines and as far south as Northern Australia. Belonging to the Hippichthys family, which is known for their wide range of salinity tolerance, these fish are found across the marine shore, lower rivers, estuaries, mangrove roots, seagrasses, and along sand flats. Throughout these areas the bluespeckled pipefish, like many other pipefishes spend much if not all of their time hiding along vegetation.
Like many pipefish, the blue spotted pipefish is a poor swimmer. As with many in this family, these fish have sacrificed the prehensile tail that is shared by their relative, the seahorse, in exchange for a caudal fin. This, along with the loss of many ribs and pelvic fin gives these fish a long streamlined body. Allowing both a better swimming experience than other Syngnathidae family members, but still incredibly poor overall. The loss of these bones, along with the elongation of the skull and vertebrae however has led to dense bony plates along their skin, protecting them from a majority of predators. These fish in particular can be identified from other freshwater pipefish from the unique blue, white, or yellow speckling as well as the dark colored bands and ridges that line their dorsal and ventral caudal tail area. Larger than most other pipefish, especially in their genus, the blue speckled pipefish comes in at a whopping 16cm maximum. Their diet along with what preys on them is poorly understood, but we do know these fish have a long mouth with no teeth that excels in sucking small plankton, particularly small planktonic crustaceans.
Similar to their close relatives, the seahorses, pipefish are also ovoviviparous. Once pipefishes reach an appropriate age during the breeding season both male and female pipefishes will go through lengthy courtships. Each fish will do a "dance" to try and entice a mate, where in which the fish will wiggle and shake to show themselves not only as a good mate, but as interested in the creation of pups. If successful, the female pipefish will then use an ovipositor to move eggs into the male brooding area. Similar to seahorses, most male species have a particular brooding pouch, which is a straight pouch under the tail of this fish for housing the fertilized eggs (based). Other species of pipefish simply hold the eggs below the tail and aerate them however.
These brooding pouches are fascinating, several hundred villi that are rich in capillaries feed nutrients to the pups, creating a semi placenta. This brooding period will last only a week, during which the male will camouflage himself close to the seabed, and if he doesn't have enough nutrients to support the pups, the pouch will begin consuming them. After a week in the brooding patch the young hatch, and the ventral seal is undone, allowing for the pups to swim freely from their father. At this point the pups are ready for life, abandoning their parents, although these fish will often group in similar areas.
One advantage to male breeding pouches of this fashion is in allowing pups to transfer immune information from both the mother and father to the eggs, rather than the normal system which only gives immune information from the mother. Little is known about the particular breeding and reproductive info of individual species and many genus, as well as behavioral data. Despite this, we do know that the blue spotted pipefish are thought to possess the ability to make sound underwater, communicating with other nearby pipefishes. These fish are considered the lowest concern, despite very little population data, and are only threatened by loss of habitat along the coastline at a local level.
That's the blue spotted pipefish, everybody! Have a wonderful day!