Gray's pipefish, also known as the mud pipefish or spiny pipefish (''Halicampus grayi'') is a species of marine fish of the family

Syngnathidae The Syngnathidae is a family of fish which includes seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons ('' Phycodurus'' and '' Phyllopteryx''). The name is derived from (), meaning "together", and (), meaning "jaw". The fused jaw is one of the traits that ...

. It is found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

in the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

, Sri Lanka, and from the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand (), historically known as the Gulf of Siam (), is a shallow inlet adjacent to the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. ...

to Japan, the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

, and the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

. It lives to depth of , and

planktonic Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in water (or air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they pro ...

juveniles have been found above depths of . It occurs in muddy habitats, in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

, and on

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...

, where it likely feeds on small

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

. It can grow to lengths of . This species is

ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparity, oviparous and live-bearing viviparity, viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develo ...

, with males carrying eggs in a brood pouch before giving birth to live young.

Etymology

The fish's patronym was not identified but it was certainly in honor of British zoologist

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a z ...

(1800-1875), who got Kaup's monograph on syngnathid fishes published under the auspices of the British Museum.

Description

''H. grayi'' is brownish with dark bars along the side of its body, and pale bars on the gill membrane. This colouring provides extremely good camouflage for muddy and silty habitats, where the species will cover itself to stay hidden.Thompson, Vanessa J. & Dianne J. Bray, Halicampus grayi in Fishes of Australia, accessed 10 Jan 2018, http://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/1528

References

Taxa named by Johann Jakob Kaup Fish described in 1856 grayi Marine fish {{Syngnathiformes-stub