Greater Pipefish

• It is the male that becomes pregnant: the female deposits the eggs in a brood pouch on the male's belly, and he fertilises them, nourishes them and gives birth weeks later.
• Its snout works like a pipette: it opens its mouth in under six milliseconds and draws in the prey along with the water.
• It lacks pelvic fins and a functional tail fin, and swims solely by undulating its dorsal fin.
• As in seahorses, pregnancy belongs to the male: the female deposits her eggs in a brood pouch under the male's tail, and he carries them until they hatch.
• Several females may deposit partial clutches in the same male's pouch, so a single brood can have several mothers.
• It breeds about three times a year.
• Its snout is a long tube ending in a tiny mouth, with which it sucks up small crustaceans, above all amphipods.
• It is told apart from a similar pipefish by having pectoral and anal fins, which that species lacks, and by an elongated bump on top of the head, behind the eye.
• Its genome was sequenced in 2023 as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Seagrass meadows and algal bottoms down to 100 m

Sexual maturity

Size at first maturity 16.3 cm (range 7-25.6)

Gestation / incubation

4-5 weeks of incubation in the male's pouch

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Syngnathus acus