Hyporhamphus ihi, the known as the garfish, piper or by its Māori name takeke, is a halfbeak found all around New Zealand in shallow inshore waters.

[2] The garfish is an unusual looking fish with many distinct features such as its elongated slender body, as well as its long lower jaw.

[2] The colouring of the fish allows it to appear somewhat camouflaged due to it having a greenish blue upper body with brown flecks and a silver-white belly and underbody.

The dorsal fin, located well back on the garfish helps it make sharp turns and stabilise rolling.

Rather than having multiple spines running top to bottom, the dorsal fin is soft and veins of cartilage give rigidity to it when needed.

[6] The pelvic fin aids the fish with stopping quickly and general stability, as well as diving into deeper waters and rising to the surface.

[12] The fish are typically found in the open ocean during the daytime, staying close to the surface of the water to avoid detection.

[5] Due to the presence of the lateral line system and the absence of the tapetum lucidum it indicated that the beak may have had a sensory function.

[5] Due to the garfish's localised schooling behavior, they attract bigger species of fish and mammals such as the kingfish (Morrison, Lowe, Spong & Rush, 2007) and dolphins.

[13] The schooling behavior of garfish also exposes them to heavy predation from sea birds such as gannets, shags and penguins.

Garfish were generally caught by dragging a finely woven flax net across seagrass beds in shallow harbors.

They are often eaten by battering and frying in a doughnut shape, created by rolling a fish around a bottle as a way to more easily break and remove the spine.