''Microphis lineatus'', the opossum pipefish, is a species of fish in 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 ...

. It is found in fresh,

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

and marine waters in the West Atlantic region, ranging from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States, to

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, Brazil, including the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. It is often found in rivers, among

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, 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 evoluti ...

and in ''

Sargassum ''Sargassum'' is a genus of brown (class Phaeophyceae) macroalgae (seaweed) in the order Fucales. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral re ...

''. The opossum pipefish was formerly regarded as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of ''

Microphis brachyurus The short-tailed pipefish (''Microphis brachyurus'') is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae. It is found in fresh and brackish waters from Sri Lanka and India east to southern Japan and the Society Islands. It inhabits places with litt ...

'' (native to Asia and Oceania), but is now recognized as a full species by both

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

and

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

. Furthermore, it is possible that full-freshwater populations currently included in the opossum pipefish represent a separate species. In the United States, the opossum pipefish is considered a species of concern by the

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...

.U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service
Species of Concern
Due to uncertainty about its

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and vulnerability to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, it is considered

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. It reaches up to in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

Species description

Opossum pipefish are a widespread species that spawn in low salinity areas of estuaries. The color of the opossum pipefish is distinctive, especially in breeding adults: the upper snout and back half of the head and body is sienna brown with a series of dark red blotches on each lateral trunk ring forming a red stripe between the lateral and superior trunk ridges; there is a silver stripe on the mid-side between the lateral and inferior trunk ridges, a silver edge on the inferior trunk ridge; the lower half of the snout is bright red with a variable number of black vertical bars, and the caudal fin is also red with a central dark stripe.

Ecology

Nothing is known about annual variation in population size, but the decline in habitat quality (described below) has likely led to a drastic decrease in population size.

Conservation

The major threats to the opossum pipefish are

, water control structures, declining water quality, and an increase in disease. These factors have been documented within the primary ecosystems occupied by opossum pipefish.

Conservation designations

IUCN:

Data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

. U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service: Species of Concern American Fisheries Society: Threatened Species of Greatest Conservation Need:FL, LA, and TX.

References

NMFS. Species of Concern Fact Shee

2008 {{Taxonbar, from1=Q7098432, from2=Q10329610 Microphis, lineatus Fish described in 1856