SYNGNATHIDAE





Bhanotia fasciolata, 7.8 cm SL
(photo by Ukkrit Satapoomin)


Bhanotia fasciolata
(Duméril, 1870)
Corrugated Pipefish

D 29-35; A 3; P1 13-16. Trunk rings 14-16; tail rings 39-42.

Superior trunk and tail ridges discontinuous, inferior trunk and tail ridges continuous, lateral trunk ridge not confluent with lateral and superior tail ridges. Caudal-fin rays 10. Head raised with ridge from behind eyes, diagonal dorsolateral snout with 1-5 minute spines, adults with bony platelets in gill membranes. Color: low half of snout and suborbital with 4 brown bars which continue across venter; a broad diagonal pale bar crosses anterior part of opercle and venter of head; head and body elsewhere largely brownish, sometimes with ocellate spots on lower lateral scutella of trunk. Size: maximum length about 9 cm. Distribution: Eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific, from Andaman Sea to Vanuatu. Remarks: lives openly on muddy or silty substrates to depths of 25 m.