It ranges a color brown to green in with broad alternating light and dark hue along it.

Its customized by a long snout with mouth on end and a slight hump on the top of the body just behind the eyes.

A few females deposit partial clutches under the tail into the male's brood pouch, that may contain up to 400 eggs.

[2] These fishes are common on southerly and westerly coasts in a variety of habitats, often amongst seaweeds and seagrass.

[2] The southern African species Syngnathus temminckii (Kaup, 1856) was until recently synonymised with S. acus.