I saw a female Widebody Pipefish at Quiet Corner this week and thought you might like a bit of advice on telling this and Spotted Pipefish apart. Identifying Spotted and Widebody Pipefish can be a bit confusing. Widebody Pipefish mostly have very narrow bodies!
Distribution in the bay
There isn’t much written in the field guides to tell Spotted and Widebody Pipefish apart. Both species occur in Port Phillip Bay and are widespread but I suspect Spotted Pipefish are more common in the southern half of the bay. Around Blairgowrie, both species occur in the shallow seagrass.
About half the Spotted Pipefish records from northern Port Phillip Bay on iNaturalist are Widebody pipefish. The confusion is that only female Widebody pipefish have wide bodies and they aren’t that common. Most Widebody pipefish are terribly thin and wispy, like a piece of seagrass. I suspect this species is by far the more abundant of the two in the northern bay.
How to find them
I’ve been seeing quite a few Widebody Pipefish recently. For the last couple of years, Widebody Pipefish have been abundant in the seagrass in Ricketts Point Marine Park, just off the beach opposite Centre Road. They are also in the seagrass at Cerberus and Fossil Beach, though in far smaller numbers.
To find them, simply look for the seagrass that swims away! They are really thread-like and about the same width as a piece of seagrass. But once you see one, you’ll probably notice others. It’s not uncommon to see many in the same patch and they often move around in pairs.
Identifying Spotted and Widebody Pipefish
Widebody Pipefish Identification
- No spots
- Have a relatively short beak.
- Are quite angular in shape. Non-adult-females are quite slender with head and body quite uniformly narrow.
- Have a dorsal fin that starts about a third of the way down the body.
- Females unmistakeable with wide, flattened body.
From the side you can see the relatively short beak, angular body and fin starting about a third of the back.
A close up of the head shows the angular nature of the body and the short beak.
A pair of Widebody Pipefish nicely camouflaged among the seagrass.
Spotted Pipefish identification
- Spotted all the way along the body.
- Have a relatively long and very slender beak.
- Quite cylindrical in shape, with the body wider in the middle, tapering to a narrower head.
- Have a dorsal fin that starts about half way down the body (though this can be hard to see).
A pair of Spotted Pipefish. Even at this distance, the spots are noticeable. So too are the very narrow and elongated beaks.
The head of a spotted pipefish showiong the very long and narrow beak.
This pair are easily identified based on the spots. The pregnant male is on the left and the female on the right. Notice how the body shape is a bit wider in the middle and tapering to each end.
