Common Pipefish-Mia Hellman

Common Pipefish 
(Syngnathus fuscus) 
By Mia Hellman


Common Pipefish (Syngnathus fuscus) lives in the salt marshes (ie: estuaries). They are in the domain Eukarya, the kingdom Animalia, the phylum Chordata, class Actinoptergii, order Syngnathiformes, family Syngnathus, genus Syngnathus, and finally, species fuscus. Pipefish are very skinny/slender fish and are 4-8 inches long. They are a greenish/olive/yellow color. A functional adaptation the pipefish has acquired is its color to help it blend in with the (murky) water, another functional adaptation is that its mouth sucks in prey, and a structural adaptation is the body shape of the pipefish allows it to move smoothly through the water. An interesting fact is that the female pipefish puts eggs into the male’s brood pouch where they would be fertilized so the male pipefish is practically the one giving birth. Their predators are humans and bass. Their prey is crustaceans, small shrimp, and plankton. They have bilateral symmetry, are heterotrophic, and are ectothermic.

Photo from our field trip