Taxonomy & naming
Hamilton described the species in 1822 from estuaries near Calcutta, and it is now placed in Microphis, a genus of pipefishes of the family Syngnathidae that live in fresh and brackish water. The Catalog of Fishes names the type locality as the estuaries near Calcutta.
Morphology
A slender pipefish with a body encased in bony rings, a tubular snout and a small fan-shaped tail. FishBase gives a maximum length of 7 in SL. Pipefish swim upright or horizontally with the dorsal fin and are poor swimmers over distance.
Habitat
FishBase lists the habitat as freshwater and brackish, demersal and potamodromous, found in rivers and estuaries. The range runs through India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Temperature, pH and hardness are not recorded.
Feeding
FishBase gives no diet for this species. Freshwater pipefishes eat small live crustaceans and insect larvae sucked in with the snout, and aquarium animals are fed on live copepods, newly hatched brine shrimp and similar small foods.
Mating
Courtship is not described for this species in the sources available to the atlas.
Breeding
FishBase records that the male carries the eggs in a brood pouch found under the tail. As in other pipefish, the young are released from the pouch as miniatures.
In the aquarium
Pipefish are a specialist group. Keep it in a quiet tank with live food that is always available, calm water movement and no competitive feeders, in water with a little salt for an estuarine fish. Frozen foods are taken by few individuals, and wild-caught animals can starve in a tank that does not breed live foods.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List classes Microphis cuncalus as Least Concern, last assessed in July 2016.