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image: Roberto Pillon (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Darkflank pipefish
Darkflank pipefish
Syngnathus taenionotus Canestrini, 1871 or Darkflank pipefish (EN), Syngnathe de l'Adriatique (FR), Pesce ago Adriatico (IT) or Adria-Seenadel (GE) is a greenish pipefish with a long snout, present on the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas. It inhabits brackish coastal lagoons enriched by aquatic vegetation or estuaries. It feeds on harpacticoid, mysids, calanoids and decapod larvae. Its feeding habits vary according to age and season, due to prey availability.
Darkflank pipefish distribution, according to IUCN (corrected by depth).
This pipefish breeds between February and July. Males receive eggs from more than one female, and they prefer larger females over smaller females. When a male encounters a desired mate, he approaches her from behind. If the female is receptive, she swims above the male, showing her ventral surface. Then the two engage in a dance, flicking the body and facing each other horizontally. The egg transference occurs when the two are above the eelgrass. Finally, the male is left alone and swims towards the bottom, where he rearranges the deposited eggs and adopts a S-shape to fertilize them.
image: Roberto Pillon (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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