PIPE-FISHES, SEA-HORSES, GLOBE-FISHES, SUN-FISHES, AND THEIR ALLIES.
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.L.S., F.Z.S.
The fishes described in the present chapter form two well-marked groups, known as the Tuft-gilled and the Comb-gilled Fishes, on account of the peculiar arrangement of the gills, or breathing-organs; they are also remarkable for their peculiar shapes. The breast-fins are present in all; but in three of the families the second pair of fins, corresponding to the hind limbs of the higher animals, are wanting.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
GLOBE-FISH.
From the formidable armature of spines, known also as the Sea-hedgehog.
The Tuft-gilled Fishes are represented by two families—the Mailed Tube-mouths and the Pipe-fishes and Sea-horses, all of which have undergone very considerable modification of form, the body being encased in mail-like armour, whilst the jaws are toothless and produced into a long tube.
The first family is composed of a few small fishes from the Indian Ocean. Grotesque in appearance, they are remarkable also for the fact that the female takes sole charge not only of the eggs, which are exceedingly minute, but the young fry also. Only one other fish is known in which the care of the eggs and young is undertaken by the female: this is one of the Cat-fishes, described in a later chapter. The eggs in the Tube-mouths are carried in a pouch formed by the union of the inner borders of the ventral fins, which are long and broad. For the retention of the eggs within the pouch its wall develops long filaments, which serve the purpose of slender fingers.
The second of these families contains the Pipe-fishes and Sea-horses. They are small marine fishes, inhabiting the seas of tropical and temperate regions wherever there is sufficient vegetation to offer shelter, for they are peculiarly defenceless creatures. They possess but feeble powers of swimming, and consequently are not seldom borne away by strong currents far out to sea or on to distant shores. Their method of locomotion is, indeed, quite different from that of other fishes, as they progress neither by undulatory motions of the body nor by powerful strokes of the tail, but by wriggling in the case of the pipe-fishes, or vibrating motions of the back-fin in the sea-horses.