The name comes from the extremely slender and tapered form of the body, ending at the front in along tubular snout. The body is armoured by a series of bony rings and its total length is not usually over 15-20 cm. The pipefish feeds on minute crus-taceans which are swallowed by sucldng in water through its trunk-like snout. The eggs laid by the female are incubated by the male in a special ventral pouch.
This is a small family of fish which pass their time resting on the reef or between the branches of the corals or the gorgoriians. They are completely motionless and are thus an easy photographic subject. They are all carnivorous and feed on crustaceans and small fish. This group also shows the sex change phenomenon: first female and then, if necessary male. The males are very territorial and have a little private harem of females.
	The common name of these fish derives from the red colouring which is a feature of many species, even if black, brown and yellow are also well represented. Most of the species remain hidden in holes or under cover all day, coming out at night to hunt the zooplankton or small crustaceans which live near the seabottom. Many Cardinalfish are solitary others svrim in couples or in small groups, but there are some small and semi-transparent species which form spectacular and enormous 169 shoals at the top of the corals. The male's role in reproduction is unusual: after having fertilized several hundred eggs just laid by the female, he takes them into his mouth where they remain for several days until they hatch.
Like the Pufferfishes, the members of this family can swell up, and, in addition, they possess a further weapon of defense: the sharp spines which cover their bodies. Normally these spines are flattened, but in the case of an attack, they are erected and stand perpendicular to the body, and thus are an excellent deterrent for attackers. Teeth which are fused together in robust dental plates allow these fish to grind the shells of shellfish and the carapaces of crustaceans, and even to feed on sea-urchins. Most of the species are nocturnal and pass the day hidden in caves and crevices.
	Trunldish owe their name and their funny appearance to the strong armour, composed of bony plates which makes up their body. They are thus slow swimmers and generally use only the anal and dorsal fins to move around, resorting to the caudal fin orfly in case of rapid flight. They feed on a large number of animal and vegetal organisms which live attached to the corals. Some species can give off a poisonous toxin when the fish is under stress. The poison can be lethal for other fish, but can also be lethal for the @urmish itself if it is in a limited amount of water.
When one speaks of sponges, the common bath sponge immediately springs to mind, whilst actually'form, colour and consistency are very variable and many sponges may be totally unrecognizable for the novice. It is not easy to classify them underwater given that identification is very often made using a microscope to examine the calcium carbonate or silicaceous spicules which make up the skeleton.
	The sponges illustrated here are frequently met with in the Red Sea and are all Demospongiae or sponges with siliceous spicifies embedded in a spongy structure called "spongin". Contrary to what was believed up to the eighteenth century sponges are animals, not plants, even if they are very primitive, not having a clear differentiation between tissues and organs.
Starfish are carnivores and some species are great predators of bivalves which they manage to open by gripping the shell with their arms and exerting an extremely strong pull on the two valves until they open. At this point the starfish evaginate their stomach through their mouth, and insert it be~ tween the two halves of the shell, digesting the unfortunate bivalve on the spot.
	Many starfish have an incredible regenerative capacity which enables them to re-form arms or any part of the body which is missing. Lincba multifora, the Comet Starfish, is a master of this art, which it also uses to reproduce asexually, dividing its body into two pieces, each of which regenerates the missing part. The "comet" starfish which one sometimes sees are nothing but starfish with a broken-off arm which is regenerating a new star.
These echinoderms usually have a globular form, even if some species are discoid, like the sea urchins which live under the sand. Their body, closed in a compact shell, is covered with mobile spines, whilst the mouth, surrounded by five strong teeth opens underneath to allow the anim to crop algae and the detritus on which it feeds. The most widespread is. the Diadem Urchin (Diadema setosum) which has long and fragile spines and which appears above all at night. Asthenosoma varium, the Pin Cushion Urchin, a red sea urchin covered with little white knobs, is dangerous because its spines are armed with sacs of poison. Heterocentrotus mammillatus, sometimes called the Slate-pencil Urchin, has, on the other hand, large and thick triangular spines and lives in shallow water where the robust nature of its spines allows it to withstand the turbulence of the waves. Its name comes from the fact that in the past the spines were used to write on blackboards.
	One of the most thrilling underwater encounters is that with a turtle. In nature they have few enemies, limited to a few sharks, like the tiger shark, which is able to break their shell with its extremely strong jaws. Man, on the other hand, has always hunted turtles relentlessly for their meat, carapace and oil, which is used in cosmetics as ingredients for creams and in medicine to cure lung troubles. One of the most fascinating aspects of these unique reptiles is their extraordinary orientation capacity. When the females reach sexual maturity they always return to lay their eggs on the very beach where they were born, and the little turtles, when just hatched, are capable of reaching the sea, attracted by its reflected light. In the Red Sea there are several species of sea turtle, among which the more common are the Green Turtle and the Imbricated Turtle
These are very similar to the Holocentridae in appearance, colouring and nocturnal habits. They feed mostly on plankton like the larva Of crustaceans and fish. Their colouring, normally of a bright and vivid red, can change in a few seconds to a more faded shade, or even become silvery grey. Recently examples of Priacanthus hamrur have been found off the Tunisian coasts, indicating probable migration through the Suez Canal.

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