''Corythoichthys amplexus'', known commonly as the brown-banded pipefish, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of marine

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 t ...

.Lieske & Myers,''Coral reef fishes'',Princeton University Press, 2009,

Description

Anatomy

The brown-banded pipefish is a small size

and can reach a maximum size of length. The skin has a base colour of light tan with broad reddish-brown bands on the body, each 3-4 rings wide, which lie across the side and dorsal surfaces, occasionally these are divided to form two closely set bands, and sometimes they are indistinct on the posterior third of the tail. The head lacks prominent stripes behind eye and the ventral surface of anterior trunk rings is blotched with dark brown in males, while often being marked with small paired spots in females.

Reproduction

The adult males and females form monogamous pairs, they are an

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 ...

species, in which the males brood the fertilised eggs in a brood pouch situated under his tail. The brood pouch protects the dorsal surface and side of the egg mass, leaving the ventral surface exposed. Males are capable of once they attain a total length of . The eggs mass consists of 2–17 transverse rows within a gelatinous matrix.

Distribution and habitat

The brown-banded pipefish is widespread throughout the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

waters of the Indo-West Pacific region, from the eastern coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

to the western Pacific north to the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

to south 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, ...

. Records from South Africa and Madagascar require verification. It is a secretive species which occurs in coral reefs, lagoons, harbours, and open sandy-flats; as well as in rubble along edges of reefs and in small patches of reef which are surrounded by sandy flats. They occur to a depth of . It feeds on small crustaceans.

Human uses

They are traded for the aquarium trade and like other pipefishes and

sea horse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

s they may be dried and traded for traditional medicine and for sale as curios.

References

External links

* * http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=217996 {{Taxonbar, from=Q2252527

amplexus Amplexus (Latin "embrace") is a type of mating behavior exhibited by some externally fertilizing species (chiefly amphibians and horseshoe crabs) in which a male grasps a female with his front legs as part of the mating process, and at the same ...

Taxa named by Charles Eric Dawson Taxa named by John Ernest Randall Fish described in 1975