PIPE-FISH, Syngnathus, a genus of osseous fishes of the order lophobranchii (q.v.), and of the family syngnathicke. In this family the form is elongated, there is little flesh, and the body is almost covered with partially ossified plates; the head is long; the jaws are elongated so as to form a tubular snout—whence the name pipe-fish and syngnathus (Gr,. syn, together, and gnathos, a jaw); and the males have pouches, variously situated. in which they receive the eggs of their mate, and carry them till they are hatched. The family syngnathida is sometimes restricted to those in which the egg-pouch of the maleS is on the tail, and is open throughout its whole length, and the tail is not prehensile. Thus restricted, it contains a number of genera, of which one only, syngnathus, is British.— One of the most common British species is the GREAT PIPE-FISII (syngnathus 00/8), which is sometimes found in deep water, and sometimes at low tide among the sea-weed in rockpools. The specimenseommonly seen are from 1 ft. to 16 in. in length; but this
fish is said to attain a length of 2 or 3 feet. Its food, and that of the other species, is believed to consist of small marine animals and the eggs of fishes;,and it may be seen i slowly moving about, with curious contortions, poking its long snout into every trrevice in search of food, and sometimes assuming a vertical position with the head downward, poking into or stirring the sand. This and the other pipe-fishes show great affection for their young, which are believed to return, on the appearance of danger, to the pouch of their male parent, after they have begun to leave it, and to swim about in the sea.
The name pipe-fish is sometimes also given to the fishes forming the family fistidarida (q.v), or flute-mouths, sometimes called