---
title: Network Pipefish (Corythoichthys flavofasciatus)
scientific_name: Corythoichthys flavofasciatus
common_name: Network Pipefish
taxon: Pipefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-24T22:20:49.234Z
updated: 2026-08-13T13:22:13.545Z
tags: Network Pipefish, Corythoichthys flavofasciatus, Pipefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pipefishes/network-pipefish
---

# Network Pipefish (*Corythoichthys flavofasciatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Pipefishes (*Syngnathinae*)
- **Size:** up to 12 cm
- **Depth:** 1-25 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Rubble and sand between corals, on the bottom
- **Reproduction:** Brooder, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- thin stick of a fish with a network of fine brown lines over cream
- long tube snout with a tiny mouth at the tip
- small fan-like tail, and no pelvic fins at all
- length up to 12 cm

A stick of a fish, 12 cm (5 in), patterned in a fine brown network over cream, lying on rubble between corals and moving in short hovering shifts. Pipefish are seahorses stretched straight, and everything about the biology is the same except the posture.

The male carries the eggs, and in this genus he does it in the open: the eggs are pressed into a soft strip of skin on his belly rather than sealed inside a pouch, and the developing embryos are visible as rows of dots for the two weeks they take. The tissue supplies oxygen and takes away waste, so it is a real pregnancy with the door left open.

Pairs are long-term and territorial, and they greet each other each morning - a brief ritual of rising and circling that keeps the bond and synchronizes the next clutch.

Feeding is a series of tiny snaps. The tube snout sucks in copepods and other small crustaceans one at a time, hundreds of times a day, and a pipefish that stops finding them starves quickly because it has no stomach to store anything in.

## Also known as

- **English:** Network Pipefish, Banded Pipefish, Reticulated Pipefish
- **Arabic:** Masas ramli
- **French:** Syngnathe à lignes jaunes, Syngnathe à traits jaunes
- **German:** Netz-Seenadel
- **Japanese:** キシマイシヨウジ, Kishima-ishi-yôji, Kishimaishiyoji
- **Chinese:** 带纹冠海龙, 帶紋冠海龍, 海龍
- **Russian:** Сетчатая игла-коритоихт
- **FI:** Verkkoneula
- **FIJ:** Ose ni waitui
- **MAH:** Hilitasi-tasi
- **TAH:** tia'i pape

## Scientific synonyms

- *Corithoichthys flavofasciatus* (Rüppell, 1838)
- *Corythiochthys flavofasciatus* (Rüppell, 1838)
- *Corythoichthys fasciatus* (Gray, 1830)
- *Corythoichthys flavo-fasciatus* (Rüppell, 1838)
- *Corythoichthys sealei* Jordan & Starks, 1906
- *Corythoichthys serrulifer* Fowler, 1938
- *Corythroichthys sealei* Jordan & Starks, 1906
- *Syngnathus flavofasciatus* Rüppell, 1838

## Range

Comoros, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pipefishes/network-pipefish)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*