Yesterday my wife and I were in a flat water area behind a massive exposed reef where very little water exchange happens and there are some fresh water underground water runoffs. We decided to check it out to see what, if anything, lives there. The water is silty, visibility is very low ranging from 1 to 2.5 meters or so depending on the cloud of silt your swimming through. Anyway, not 10 feet from the shore and standing in 50cm or so of water a baby seasnake about 30cm long with blue bands instead of the white comes slipping out of the depths to check us out before moving on to continue his hunt. We decided to follow him to see what turned up. After a few minutes of swimming along we spotted two banded pipefish camouflaged against the silty bottom. Much to our suprise, one was the normal thin bodystyle but the other had a very much enlarged midsection. The "normal" sized one immediately began to dart here and there in what appeared to be an attempt to draw us off from the other one. We slowed down to not spook the "thicker" one and I turned the flash off and did my best to not disturb "her". So, whats the diagnosis? Pregnant, or just needs a little excersize?
I also had to post a pic of the juvenile seasnake, its made made me a bit nervous compared to adults as it was certainly more active and curious than I normally see. However, the coloration was very cool!
Pipefishes are like seahorses, the male gets pregnant. During mating, the female deposits the eggs inside the male's egg pouch.
