''Pegasus lancifer'', the sculptured seamoth or sculptured dragonfish,
[ 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 ...
in the family Pegasidae
The seamoths make up a family of fishes, the Pegasidae, within the order Syngnathiformes. They are named for Pegasus, a creature from Greek mythology. Seamoths are notable for their unusual appearance, including flattened bodies, the presence o ...
which is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to the temperate seas of southern Australia and Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
. They are known to gather in large numbers in the shallows of estuaries. Individuals can bury themselves in the sediment and change colours to camouflage them. The male & female spawn as a pair, swimming with their vents touching around a above the substrate, while the eggs and sperm are released. After spawning the pair separates and the eggs begin a pelagic
The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...
phase.
Gallery
File:Pegasus lancifer close-up.jpg
File:Pegasus lancifer.jpg
References
lancifer
Taxa named by Johann Jakob Kaup
Fish described in 1861
{{Gasterosteiformes-stub