It is found in the eastern Atlantic from the southern Gulf of Biscay to Gibraltar, also in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Their long, narrow bodies have an external skeleton made of bony plates, and their mouths are very small and pipe-shaped.

The black-striped pipefish is found in coastal waters and in the lower reaches of rivers in the Caspian, Black and Mediterranean Sea basins, along the European Atlantic coast from Gibraltar north to the southern part of the Bay of Biscay; in the Danube reaching west to the frontier between Romania and Hungary, as well as in the Dnieper up to Kyiv.

It was introduced into reservoirs of the middle and lower Volga with mysids brought from the Don estuary, where it is now expanding its range and has been recorded to the south of Moscow.

Syngnathus abaster is a marine species living in shallow-water seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea.

The tube is dilated which creates a small, strong current in the water near the fish's mouth.

According to Guenther Sterba, author of Freshwater Fishes of the World, the current is accompanied by a sucking noise, much like a small vacuum cleaner.

This particular species of pipefish has no real defense against predators aside from camouflage and swimming away, making it an easy target.