Pygmy Pipe Dragon

The pygmy pipe dragon is a tiny relative of seahorses, pipefish and seadragons that looks like a wisp of algae swaying in the current.

It lives singly or in pairs on rocky and sandy reefs in shallow coastal water, clinging to overhangs, cracks, crevices, algae and whip corals, and sometimes over silty bottoms. It has been recorded in the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, and at Kapalai in Sabah.

It pairs a face rather like a pygmy seahorse's with a long, slender body, and its colour matches whatever is around it, such as sponges, seaweeds or whip corals. Spotting one takes patience and a very sharp eye.

It grips on with a prehensile tail so the current cannot wash it away, and moves in a delicate, drifting style. Food is tiny swimming invertebrates, sucked whole into the mouth.

In pipefish as in seahorses, it is the male who gives birth. The female deposits her eggs in a pouch under his tail, where they incubate for a month.