Pughead Pipefish

Bulbonaricus brauni - Braun's Pughead Pipefish is a small sized Pipefish, like a toothpick with length of around 5 cm and body thickness/width of only 2-3 mm. They are dark red to brownish in colour with super tiny white spots that are not visible with the naked eyes. They have a white patch on the face, this is similar to the tip of the tentacle/polyps of the Galaxea stony corals that they lives in, giving them good camouflage. They are usually found in pairs and similar to Seahorses, they possibly pairs for life and if not disturbed, will spend their whole life in the same Galaxea sp coral host.

This pipefish is very difficult to take good pictures of, especially with a Compact camera as not only are they very slender in size (body width of around 2-3 mm), but they also lives in between the crevices of Galaxea stony corals of around 3-4 mm space. This corals have translucent tentacles/polyps, which not only the Pipefishes camouflaged well with, but also covers them from direct views.