Name that Pipefish

[scubasully]

Today we did the amazing - a few weeks ago a friend told us that he saw a pipefish on the reef, so today we went for a look and actually found it! "Amazing" because it's a big reef, and he gave no directions or clues to where it might be.

Anyway, I snapped some photos and now we're trying to identify the little guy/gal. The body looks just like the Whitenose pipefish in the Humann book, but the "nose" isn't white. In the blurb about the Harlequin pipefish, the Humann book mentions the separate species called Banded, which is just like the Harlequin but with white bands instead of yellow, but this fella had more of a stripe thing going on - not thick bands. Maybe it's a juvie of either the Banded or Whitenose?

Details: about 5 inches long, found in St. Kitts, shallow reef (8 ft of water), mid-day, slides on belly rather than swims, hanging out near some gorgonian, then under a sea urchin, then finally disappeared under a rock, tired of the paparazzi.
Looking forward to any help on this one!

Here are the pics:

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3


Thanks in advance.

 

[ryan115]

many seahorses have very similar pigmentation paterns that can be fairly variable even among the same species. When I get to work on monday I can look through some of my books and see if I can narrow it down for you. But you are right that it does look similar to C. albirostris

 

[deborahdelamar]

Although this one's snout is shorter than I usually see, from what I can tell from the photos -- that it has the lines behind its eyes & the overall coloring & banding are right -- I'd say it's a shortfin pipefish.
It is amazing that you were able to find it!