DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

Blink and you miss it John Magee

Ghost hairy pipefish are a family of fish that are still relatively new to science and are close relatives of the seahorses. Seahorses and Ghost pipefish instead are covered in armoured rings on their bodies to protect them. It is found all over the Indian Ocean from Australia all the way up to Japan. Hairy Roughsnout Ghostpipefish, Solenostomus sp.

They start their lives floating in the mid water along with the other plankton and are almost transparent. They move around with the ocean currents and when they find a reef, they settle around areas where they can camouflage best, so in the hairy ghost pipefish’s case, around long algae patches. They are very hard to spot, especially as they usually live deeper than 10 metres. Their camouflage is used for two main reasons. The first is to hide from predators. Hairy ghost pipefish are very small which makes them the perfect snack for lots of larger fish. The long filaments on their bodies allow them to blend in perfectly with their habitat, meaning that the only way to

Hairy Ghost Pipe fish

spot them is to look for an eye in the middle of algae! The other way they use their camouflage is to make hunting easier for themselves. Ghost pipefish are ambush predators. This means that they hide perfectly, completely out of sight until something tasty swims past them. Their mouth is a tube shape and they have special muscles there that can make the tube wider, creating a fast, sucking motion that sucks their unsuspecting prey straight into their mouths. When they find a mate, the female will hold the fertilised eggs in a special pouch on the front of her body that is made by bringing her two large pelvic fins together to form a pocket. Their lives are quite short, and it is thought that after they give birth to their live young, they die, leaving the next generation to start the cycle all over again. Blink and you will miss it.

Hairy Ghost Pipe fish

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Dive Log Australasia #413 AUGUST ‘25

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