---
title: Robust Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus cyanopterus)
scientific_name: Solenostomus cyanopterus
common_name: Robust Ghost Pipefish
taxon: Ghost pipefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-26T23:59:51.040Z
updated: 2026-08-14T08:32:48.588Z
tags: Robust Ghost Pipefish, Solenostomus cyanopterus, Ghost pipefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/ghost-pipefishes/robust-ghost-pipefish
---

# Robust Ghost Pipefish (*Solenostomus cyanopterus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Ghost pipefishes (*Solenostomus*)
- **Size:** up to 17 cm
- **Depth:** 1-25 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Seagrass, weed and rubble, hanging head-down
- **Reproduction:** Brooder, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- leaf-shaped body hanging vertically, head down
- color from brown to green to near-black, matching the surroundings
- females far larger than males, with a pouch formed by the pelvic fins
- length up to 17 cm

A leaf hanging head-down in seagrass, which turns out to be a fish. Seventeen centimeters (7 in) of ghost pipefish, motionless, matching whatever it is hiding among - brown in dead weed, green in seagrass, almost black over rubble.

In its relatives the seahorses and pipefishes, the male carries the eggs. Here it is reversed and reinvented: the female's pelvic fins are enlarged and joined into a pouch under her body, and she broods the eggs there herself. No other fish family makes a pouch this way, and the male, which is a fraction of her size, does not carry anything.

Ghost pipefish drift in as larvae, settle, pair up, breed and vanish, all within a few months. They are not resident on a reef in any real sense: a site has them for a season and then does not, which is why sightings spread through dive guides like news.

Hanging head-down is the whole disguise. Find one by looking for a leaf that is the wrong shade, or by looking for a pair, since they are almost always two.

## Also known as

- **English:** ghost pipefish, Robust Ghost Pipefish, Blue-finned Ghost Pipefish
- **Arabic:** سمكة الأنبوب عشب البحر الشبحية
- **French:** Poisson-fantôme robuste, Poisson-fantôme rugueux
- **Italian:** Pesce ago fantasma robusto
- **German:** Robuster Geisterpfeifenfisch, Röhrenmaul, Seegrasgeisterfisch
- **Spanish:** Pez pipa fantasma de Racek
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-cachimbo-fantasma-comum
- **Czech:** vějířník modroploutvý
- **Japanese:** カミソリウオ, Kamisori-uo, Kamisoriuo
- **Chinese:** 剃刀魚, 蓝鳍剃刀鱼, 藍鰭剃刀魚
- **AF:** Spookpypvis
- **DA:** Brun Spøgelsesnålefisk
- **ET:** Merihein-torusuu
- **KO:** 유령실고기
- **MAL:** Pulchala, പുല്ചാള
- **TH:** ปลาจิ้มฟันจระเข้ปีศาจใบไม้

## Scientific synonyms

- *Solenichthys raceki* Whitley, 1955
- *Solenostoma cyanopterus* Bleeker, 1854
- *Solenostomatichthys bleekeri* (Duméril, 1870)
- *Solenostomus bleekeri* Duméril, 1870
- *Solenostomus bleekerii* Duméril, 1870

## Range

Comoros, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/ghost-pipefishes/robust-ghost-pipefish)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*