They are commonly cited hanging about in small groups in reef areas, all aligned in parallel, with their heads pointing downwards. Shrimpfishes are so-named because the thin bony plates which cover their body look like the outer skeleton of a shrimp. Eggs are probably released into the water without parental care. Snipefishes include about twelve species in three genera, and are found in deeper tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Their body is deep, but laterally compressed, with a long narrow snout.
Snipefishes spawn pelagic eggs and lack parental care.
The only species in the family, Indostomus paradoxus , was discovered in Lake Indawgyi in Burma in 1926. This section presents summary information on pipefish trade and legislation discovered in the course of the seahorse investigation. These fishes are here referred to collectively as pipefishes unless a distinction is required. TCM currently mostly absorbs pipehorses, along with the pipefish Syngnathoides biaculeatus, but other species are increasingly consumed, particularly as Solegnathus become more difficult to obtain. Among the smaller species, only Syngnathoides biaculeatus are considered efficacious.