Find a Fish
Wide-body Pipefish
Stigmatopora nigra Kaup, 1856
Above and below: Wide-body Pipefish seined from a seagrass bed by K. Parkinson and C. Arnold at a depth of 1m, Botany Bay, New South Wales, October 2001. View larger image.
A Wide-body Pipefish at a depth of 14m, Kurnell, Sydney, New South Wales, September 2001. View larger image.
The Wide-body Pipefish has an elongate body that is encased in dermal plates (often called rings) rather than scales.
Its colour is variable from light to dark brown, green to red-brown (see lower image).
Male and female Wide-body Pipefish are easy to tell apart when they are breeding. During breeding males have a small pouch on the belly where they carry the developing young. Males give birth to young pipefish that resemble the adults. Females develop a wide body (hence the common name) with a fine orange band along the side of the fish.
This species grows to 15cm in length. It is thought to live for about one year.
Food items include small crustaceans, mostly copepods and mysids.
The Wide-body Pipefish usually occurs in estuaries where it is common in seagrass beds or in weedy areas on rocky reefs. It uses its tail to attach to seagrass and algae.
This species is recorded in temperate marine waters from southern Queensland, around the south of the country and north to the central coast of Western Australia. It is also known from New Zealand.
The Wide-body Pipefish is closely related to the Spotted Pipefish Stigmatopora argus (view fact sheet). They can be identified by colouration and the position of the dorsal fin. The dorsal fin is on the 5th-7th rings of the Wide-body Pipefish, but on the 11th-13th rings of the Spotted Pipefish. The Spotted Pipefish is usually green with obvious black spots on the dorsal surface of the body.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Edgar, G.J. 1997. Australian Marine Life: the plants and animals of temperate waters. Reed Books. Pp. 544.
- Dawson, C.E. in Gomon, M.F., Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing Pp. 240.
