Syngnathidae Bonaparte 1831

Angulo, Arturo, Betts, Joel T., González-Alemán, Néstor J., Castañeda, Edgar, Berghe, Eric Van Den, Elías, Diego J., Mcmahan, Caleb D. & Matamoros, Wilfredo A., 2023, Continental fishes of Nicaragua: diversity, distribution and conservation status; with an annotated and illustrated checklist of species and an identification guide to families, Zootaxa 5376 (1), pp. 1-89 : 30

Family Syngnathidae Bonaparte 1831 ( Fig. 3H ). Pipefishes; Peces Pipa

Description: Body long, slender, extremely elongated in some taxa, encased in an armor of ring-like, bony segments; up to 30 cm in length; mouth small, without teeth, at the end of a long tubular snout; gill opening very small, restricted to the top corner of the operculum; pectoral, dorsal, anal and/or caudal fins usually present; pelvic fins absent ( Robertson & Allen 2015, Nelson et al. 2016). Distribution: Marine and brackish water, some species in freshwater; Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans (Nelson et al. 2016). Two genera and four species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Families of continental fishes of Nicaragua, part 2; Bryconidae (A), Characidae (B), Gymnotidae (C), Loricariidae (D), Heptapteridae (E), Ariidae (F), Batrachoididae (G), Syngnathidae (H), Eleotridae (I), Gobiidae (J), Synbranchidae (K), Centropomidae (L), Polynemidae (M) and Paralichthyidae (N). Illustrations adapted (with permission) from Nelson et al. (2016) and Angulo et al. (2021).