We spotted a robust ghost pipefish (Solenostomus cyanopterus) on the Pyramids this week. The ghost pipefishes aren’t the easiest fish to spot though. You first think that you look at leaf. It’s there moving frontward and backward following the movements of water like a random piece of wood. But if you look closer you reralise the shape of it is a bit too perfect, the buoyancy a bit too perfect to be honest. This is when you realise there’s actually a head down and some fins… Robust ghost pipefish like all the pipefishes have this very particular camouflage technique : they stay head down pretending they are some random pieces of organic residues drifting in the sea. They feed on tiny crustaceans, sucked inside through their long snouts. They live in open waters except during breeding, when they find a coral reef or muddy bottom, changing color and shape to minimize visibility. That makes the ghost pipefishes seasonal and we can’t see them all year long.
During that dive on the Pyramids we also had the chance to spot a massive stonefish perfectly static in the bottom, a nice ribbon eel, a leaf scorpion fish and some cool nudibranchs. All this in one site in one dive, and i’m not talking about all the usual guys we used to meet down there. Come have look with us at TwoFish Amed dive center to get a chance to see all this rich and diverse marine life !