The short-tailed pipefish (''Microphis brachyurus'') is a species of

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 Syngnathidae. It is found in fresh and brackish waters from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

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east to southern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the

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. It inhabits places with little or no current in rivers, streams and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

. It formerly included three

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 ...

, but these are now regarded as separate species: ''

Microphis aculeatus ''Microphis'' is a genus of pipefishes (stream pipefishes or river pipefishes) within the family Syngnathidae. Members of this genus are notable among the Syngnathidae for residing in mainly fresh and brackish waters. Adults breed in coastal r ...

'' of the East Atlantic region, '' Microphis lineatus'' of the West Atlantic and Caribbean regions, and '' Microphis millepunctatus'' of the Western Indian Ocean region. The short-tailed pipefish 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 ...

References

* http://australianmuseum.net.au/short-tail-river-pipefish-microphis-brachyurus-bleeker-1853 {{Taxonbar, from=Q3642446 brachyurus Fish described in 1842