Ghosts of the reefs

Ghost pipefish are tropical fish relative to sea horses and pipefish. They belong to family Solenostomidae and there are about 5 species. These fish mimic sea grass and algae by their shape of body and coloration. They hover among footstalk of plants upside down and move themselves by strange swimming. They mimic waving of the plants on sea bottom. They could adapt their coloration so when plants die and turn brown the fish also change it´s color. They often appear in pairs or small groups. Specification for these fish is dermal skelet made from radial desks, head create two third of the whole body. They also have separeted spinal fins, anal, big ventral and caudal fin, which look like a fan. The most beatiful is Solenostomus paradoxus. It could reach maximum of 13cm, we can find it in Red and Arabic sea, in Indian and west Atlantic ocean id depth from 3 to 25 metres. Typical colour is dark red with yellow and orange spottes and yellow with bright spottes. It lives near soft corals, sea fans or gorgonies. Feeding is similar to sea horses, sucking of small organism by tubular mouths. Here the female carry and look after babbies. Male is about 37% smaller than a female, the couple move synchronous. Males could also change to females.

Ghost pipefish are wide spread also like sea horses but many divers never see them. When I showed Solenostomus cyanopterus to my friend it took a long time till he see it. It was just 3 cm big and among it many brown leaves. Solenostomus revealed itselves after a while. It has good eyes and when predator appears it started to move much faster to get far from danger. And this make ghost pipefish noticable for us. Sometimes it happened to me that I was trying to make a photo of it and after a while I found out that I am photographying just leaves and that ghost pipefish is somewhere else. So before I strat to make photos I check if it is really ghost pipefish in front of me. Many divers swim near this creatures thinkong that it is just some waste. You just have to look closer. Everything is not as seems for the first time.