Pipehorses

As the name implies, pipehorses have a posture that is halfway between that of a pipefish and that of a seahorse. This group of fishes has the elongated body and horizontal posture of a pipefish, as well as the characteristic prehensile tail of a seahorse. Similar to both of those groups, pipehorses have elongated snouts for capturing small prey and can be extremely well-camouflaged.

Pipehorses are an extremely diverse group of fishes, with pygmy pipehorses only reaching about 6 cm in length, while the larger species can reach up to 60 cm. Little is known about most pipehorse species, but those with enough data to be assessed seem to be relatively unthreatened.

Learn more about pipefishes by checking out the profiles below.

Syngnathidae (Pipehorses)

Photo	Scientific Name	Common Name	IUCN Red List Status	Profile	Range
	Acentronura australe Waite & Hale, 1921	Southern little pipehorse	DD		Eastern Indian Ocean
	A. dendritica (Barbour, 1905)	West Altantic Pygmy pipehorse	LC		Western Atlantic
	A. gracilissima (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850)	Graceful pipehorse	LC		Western Pacific
	A. larsonae Dawson, 1984	Larson's pipehorse	DD		Eastern Indian Ocean
	A. lumnitzeri (Kuiter, 2004)	Sydney's Pygmy pipehorse	LC		Southwestern Pacific
	A. tentaculata Gunther, 1870	Shortpouch Pygmy pipehorse	LC		Indo-West Pacific
	Cylix tupareomanaia Short & Turnski, 2021	Manaia Pygmy pipehorse	NE		New Zealand
	Solegnathus dunckeri Whitley, 1927	Duncker's pipehorse	DD		Western Pacific
	S. hardwickii (Gray, 1830)	Hardwicke's pipehorse	DD		Western Indian Ocean, Western Pacific
	S. lettiensis Bleeker, 1860	Günther's pipehorse	DD		Eastern Indian Ocean
	S. robustus McCulloch, 1911	Robust pipehorse	LC		Eastern Indian Ocean
	S. spinosissimus (Günther, 1870)	Spiny pipehorse	DD		Southwest Pacific

IUCN Red List categories

Click here for a full explanation of IUCN Red List categories. A brief key is provided below.


Extinct	Extinct in the Wild	Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable	Near Threatened	Least Concern	Data Deficient	Not Evaluated

A note on ‘Data Deficient’ species: Species that are assessed as Data Deficient are deemed to have insufficient information known about them to carry out a proper conservation assessment. Although such species are not assessed as threatened, we may find out that they in fact are, once enough data is obtained.

[Page updated Jan 2016]