Pipefish - Phoxocampus belcheri

A lucky glance at just the right time revealed what was first thought to be a worm squirming among the arms of a black crinoid, but turned out to be a species of pipefish, possibly Phoxocampus belcheri,we have never seen before. Less than 2 inches (50mm) it was fully adult as we discovered when we released it on another dive. During the few hours we kept it to video, it released 6 tiny babies around 6mm long and the width of a strand of hair! We speculate that a black crinoid might be the perfect place to release its young and made sure to find another crinoid when we set him free.

29 November 2015

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