''Choeroichthys sculptus'', the sculptured pipefish, is a species of marine fish of the family

Syngnathidae The Syngnathidae is a family of fish which includes seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons (''Phycodurus'' and ''Phyllopteryx''). The name is derived from grc, σύν (), meaning "together", and (), meaning "jaw". The fused jaw is one of the tra ...

Description

''Choeroichthys sculptus'' is a small secretive species with a short snout, and with body and tail sections which are approximately equal in length. ''C. sculptus'' is dark brown in colour with 2-3 rows of black-margined white spots along its sides with larger white spots along its back and dark spots situated on the lower part of and on either side of the head. The trunk and tail rings show notches between the rings with conspicuous scutella each of which has a projecting ridge or keel. They can grow to lengths of .

Distribution

''Choeroichthys sculptus'' is widely distributed in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

from the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

, southern Japan, the Northern

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

, to Samoa. In Australia it is known only from northern

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

Habitat and biology

''Choeroichthys sculptus'' is thought to feed mainly on small crustaceans. They are solitary, the sexes are separate and males brood the eggs in an enclosed brood pouch on underside of his body, i.e. this species is

ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

, eventually the eggs hatch and the male gives birth to live young. The female usually lays the eggs in a single layer of two parallel rows within the brood pouch. The males may be brooding at in length. The larvae are undescribed. It inhabits

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

flats,

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

, and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

beds.

Naming

The generic name "''Choeroichthys''" is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

meaning "pig" and meaning "fish", the specific name ''sculptus'' means "to carve" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and refers to the conspicuous keeled scutella.

Description

Distribution

Habitat and biology

Naming

References

Further reading