I was taking a mental health break this Sunday, at my marsh research site between New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana. Swooping my aquatic insect net along the bayou bank was producing nothing, so I swooped one last time, and when I sorted through the muck I was very excited to find what appeared to be a tiny little dragon.
My first instinct (tiny dragon) proved to be incorrect, but my impression that it has the head of a seahorse on the body of a tiny snake was much closer to the truth. I've since determined that I found a member of the fish family most closely related to seahorses: a pipefish. To be more precise, my fish is a Gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli), which is apparently the only North American pipefish that spends significant time in fresh water. It is also a particularly difficult fish to keep, according to every reference I've found on the web so far. I'm pretty pumped to have encountered this weird and amazing fish, and I'm enjoying watching it and reading all about it. It is about 4" long, and incredibly slender and delicate-looking. I haven't attempted to sex it, but I'll give that a shot at some point.
I have it alone in a stable 3-gallon freshwater aquarium right now, and it seems to be doing pretty well. I replaced about 1/3 of the aquarium water with mildy saline (3ppt) water from it's native bayou. I'm stocked up on live copepods from its capture site, so I think we're good for the short term. I'll probably observe it for a while, try to get some decent photos, and then release it. When I have photos to share, I'll be sure to post them.
My first instinct (tiny dragon) proved to be incorrect, but my impression that it has the head of a seahorse on the body of a tiny snake was much closer to the truth. I've since determined that I found a member of the fish family most closely related to seahorses: a pipefish. To be more precise, my fish is a Gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli), which is apparently the only North American pipefish that spends significant time in fresh water. It is also a particularly difficult fish to keep, according to every reference I've found on the web so far. I'm pretty pumped to have encountered this weird and amazing fish, and I'm enjoying watching it and reading all about it. It is about 4" long, and incredibly slender and delicate-looking. I haven't attempted to sex it, but I'll give that a shot at some point.
I have it alone in a stable 3-gallon freshwater aquarium right now, and it seems to be doing pretty well. I replaced about 1/3 of the aquarium water with mildy saline (3ppt) water from it's native bayou. I'm stocked up on live copepods from its capture site, so I think we're good for the short term. I'll probably observe it for a while, try to get some decent photos, and then release it. When I have photos to share, I'll be sure to post them.
