Order Gasterosteiformes

An order of highly specialized fishes comprising 11 families and more than 280 relatively small species. Most have a small mouth at the end of a long tubular snout and have bodies encased in bony armour made up of bony rings or dermal plates. They also share the following combination of osteological characters - supramaxillary, orbitosphenoid and basisphenoid bones absent, and the cleithrum is not connected to the pelvic girdle.

The majority inhabit shallow nearshore marine waters with the greatest diversity in the Indo-Pacific. They feed mostly on small crustaceans with the exception of the larger trumpetfishes and flutemouths which feed on other fishes. Pipefishes and seahorses are popular aquarium fishes and several species are aquacultured for sale in the live aquarium trade and the Traditional Chinese Medicine industry. Many seahorse and some pipefish species are included on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species. All syngnathid species are protected in Australian waters.

Families in Australian waters:

References

Fritzsche, R.A. 1984. Gasterosteiformes: development and relationships (p. 398-405). In  Moser, H.G., W.J. Richards, D.M. Cohen, M.P. Fahay, A.W. Kendall, Jr. & S.L. Richardson, eds. Ontogeny and systematics of fishes. Am. Soc. Ichthyol. Herpetol. Spec. Publ. No. 1.

Keivany, Y. & J. Nelson. 2006. Interrelationships of Gasterosteiformes (Actinopterygii, Percomorpha). J. Ichthyol. 46, Suppl. 1: S84-S96.

Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. TMC Publishing, Chorleywood, UK. 240 pp.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

Johnson, D.G. & C. Patterson. 1993. Percomorph phylogeny: a survey of acanthomorphs and a new proposal. Bull. Mar. Sci. 52(1): 554-626.

Nelson, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 4th Edn. 601 pp.

Takata, Y. & K. Sasaki. 2005. Branchial structures in the Gasterosteiformes, with special reference to myology and phylogenetic implications. Ichthyol. Res. 52(1): 33-49.