Written By
Granddaddy Opossum Pipefish rolls in wearing burnt sienna and looking like a wet stick.
The seadragons look like they just raided the ghillie suit isle.
And the seahorses, always stylish, are all curly tailed, mostly colorful and feeling cute.
Meet the Syngnathids
If you were to sit down with the Syngnathidae family at dinner you鈥檇 surely be dazzled by their sundry dress. Their bony armor. Pinks, yellows, and blues. Leafy green projections! Rounded pink bumps. Tiny pursed lips. And tightly permed to rod-straight tails terminating in little, rounded flags.
As families go, there鈥檇 be your typical chitter chatter (er, clicking). Maybe they're talking about their varied views on habitat preferences (some like freshwater streams!). These fish tend to be rigid and controlling (we鈥檙e talking movement, of course), and they're constantly hovering. Top it all off with a dad pouch for developing embryos. And these pouches are no basic baby carrier: we鈥檙e talking everything from ventral gluing to inhouse snack machine and pathogen immunity. Granddaddy Opossum Pipefish鈥檚 original thoracic (chest) pouch is still cool, 50 million years later, although some branches of the family tree have gone more modern with tail pouches.
Let's go exploring!
When it comes to the beauty of America, much can be seen and admired from the seat of your car, short walks in the woods, or from the window of an airplane during a flight. While you may be drawn to the dynamic views of mountain ranges, gorges, valleys, and other huge geological features, we encourage you to take a closer look! Especially in places like Florida where the big landscape features that bring those feelings of admiration maybe aren't as readily realized. However, upon closer inspection, Florida's swamps, marshes, and mangrove fringes are full of amazing sights and sounds that only get cooler and cooler as you zoom your perspective in.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e looking for the weird little mini fish, you feel like you鈥檙e exploring and you never know what the heck you鈥檙e going to find!鈥 鈥 Eddie Perri, Fish Biologist
Imagine it. You're in Florida. Somewhere on the east coast between the mainland and barrier islands. This is where the 156-mile long Indian River Lagoon is situated. With over 700 species of fish that spend all or part of their life here, this shallow-water estuary is one of the most biodiverse in North America. And there is much to see! You鈥檒l see clumps of emergent vegetation. Perhaps Polygonum (AKA smartweed - Opossum Pipefish's #1 habitat!) or Panicum鈥r maybe even water hyacinth. These plants break the water鈥檚 surface but if you follow them down, their roots are submerged. Amongst this vegetation you鈥檒l find monogamous pairs of Florida's very best kept secret, similar in dimension and posture to an unsharpened pencil: granddaddy wet stick himself!
What's especially cool, and perhaps surprising about the pipefishes is that there's even a stream/river-loving group of species in the genus Microphis (this includes the Opossum Pipefish, Microphis brachyurus lineatu). You can literally find these amazing seahorse relatives in places like this:
Save one, save all?
You probably know the story well by now: drastic declines in habitat quantity and quality have led to the decline of the Opossum Pipefish. Where we used to be able to see many monogamous pairs during surveys, habitat loss due to development, draining and ditching of wetlands, algal blooms due to poor water quality, use of herbicides, and an increase in non-native species have all taken a toll.
Other neighbors, including species like , River Goby, and (not hairdo), are just a few of the other cool native fishes that live in communities alongside the Opossum Pipefish. They face the same threats as our little wet stick. Replanting native emergent vegetation, limiting herbicide treatments in certain areas and times of year, and learning more about these understudied fish are just some of the things we can do to help this amazing native fish.
Listen to our Fish of the Week podcast episode featuring Fish Biologist Eddie Perri and the Opossum Pipefish to get the full scoop:
Learn more about our Peninsular Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office
If you like seahorses, here's an introduction:
We hope you get out there and live with, live from, discover and enjoy all the fish! 馃悷
Written By
