Lynne's Pipefish

Festucalex rufus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Syngnathiformes
Family: Syngnathidae
Genus: Festucalex
Species: Festucalex rufus

Lynne's pipefish (Festucalex rufus) is a small, reddish pipefish that hides among algae and rubble on sandy slopes. Its body is covered with tiny skin filaments that help it blend into weed and debris.

Only a few centimetres long, it moves slowly along the bottom or clings with its tail to algae, sucking up tiny crustaceans with its tube-like snout. It is a recently described species and still poorly known.

Lynne's pipefish has been recorded in the Philippines, where it is an occasional find for sharp-eyed macro divers searching algae and rubble on muck sites.