Meet the Ornate Ghost Pipefish. A relative of seahorses, they are brilliantly colored and beautifully distinctive. This video needs to be seen full screen.
The Ornate Ghost Pipefish or Solenostomus paradoxus is one of the hardest fish to spot in the ocean. First of all they are relatively small, only growing to about 12cm in maximum length. This combined with the fact that their bodies look more like coral or seaweed than an actual saltwater fish, makes them a master of camouflage!
This species is just one of the over 200 different species of Pipefish! …Ornate Ghost Pipefish are normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans in and around reefs. They come in a variety of colors including black, yellow, red and even transparent! … They use their mouths as a vacuum of sorts to consume their food, normally tiny crustaceans.
And for a bit more, check out this series of videos at Advanced Aquarist, which features two ornate ghost pipefish and their larvae at the California Academy of Sciences.
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