FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



313 



Figure 172. — Pipefish (Syngnathus fuscus) . After Bigelow and Welsh. 



ninth of the total length (in the trumpetfish it is 

 nearly one-third) ; the snout is tubelike, blunt 

 ended, with the small toothless mouth at its tip. 

 The gill openings are very small. The body is 

 hexagonal in cross section in front of the vent but 

 is four-sided behind the dorsal fin and it is clothed 

 in an armor of bony plates connected in rings, of 

 which there are 18 to 20 in front of the vent and 

 36 to 42 behind the latter. The abdomen of the 

 male is wider just back of the vent than elsewhere, 

 with two lateral flaps that meet along the midline 

 to form the so-called "marsupial" or brood pouch. 

 The female lacks these. The dorsal fin (35 to 41 

 rays and 5 or 6 times as long as it is high) covers 

 4 or 5 of the bony rings in front of the vent and as 

 many behind it. The caudal fin is rounded, its 

 middle rays the longest. The anal is very small, 

 close behind the vent; the pectorals are of moderate 

 size; there are no ventral fins. 



Color. — Greenish, brownish, or olive above, 

 cross-barred and mottled with darker. The lower 

 parts of the gill covers are silvery. The lower 

 parts of the sides are sprinkled with many tiny 

 white dots, and the longitudinal angles separating 

 sides from abdomen are marked by longitudinal 

 brown bars. The lower surface is colorless on 

 the snout, but pale to golden yellow thence back 

 to the vent, with the marsupial flaps flesh-colored. 

 The dorsal and pectoral fins are pale, but the caudal 

 is brown. 76 Pipefishes change color according to 

 the color of their surroundings. We have seen 

 them of various shades of olive and brown; and 

 red ones have been described. 



Size. — Usually 4 to 8 inches long; occasionally 

 up to 12 inches. 



Habits. — The chief home of this pipefish is 

 among eelgrass or seaweeds, both in salt marshes, 



" Colors based on Storer's (Fishes of Massachusetts, 1867, p. 412) account 

 and on the specimens we have examined. 



210941— 5S 21 



harbors, and river mouths, where it often goes up 

 into brackish water, and on more open shores as 

 well. In such locations it is caught as often today 

 by boys dipping up mummichogs for bait as it was 

 when Storer wrote of it, nearly a century ago. 

 The pipefish, like the three-spined stickleback, 

 sometimes strays out to sea on the surface, and 

 while we have never taken it in our tow nets, 

 Kendall n has often found it under floating rock- 

 weed along the Maine coast. But they are so 

 seldom taken at any distance out from the land 

 that the capture of four specimens at a depth of 

 19 fathoms south of No Mans Land, February 5, 

 1930, is of present interest, though outside the 

 limits of our Gulf. There is no reason to suppose 

 pipefish are at all migratory, for they are resident 

 in the eelgrass (Zostera) at Woods Hole throughout 

 the year. 



They usually propel themselves by the dorsal 

 fin, but they can travel swiftly when alarmed, with 

 eel-like strokes of the tail from side to side. And 

 they are able to roll their eyeballs separately, an 

 interesting habit described many years ago by 

 Lyman. 78 



They feed chiefly on minute Crustacea (copepods 

 especially and amphipods), also to some extent 

 on fish eggs, on very small fish fry, and no doubt 

 indiscriminately for that matter on any small 

 marine animals. And their snouts are so disten- 

 sible that they can swallow larger prey than one 

 might expect. In capturing its prey, the pipefish 

 has been described as expelling the water from the 

 snout and pharynx by muscular action, depending 

 on the return rush to sweep in its victims. Pipe- 

 fishes have few enemies so far as known. 



" Bull. U. 8. Fish Comm., vol. 18, 1896, p. 623. 



'» Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, 1861, pp. 75-76. 



