Keepers at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks are preparing for the arrival of dozens of baby pipefish following an unexpected breeding boom.

A number of tiny 5cm long broadnose pipefish babies have already been born with potentially hundreds more due imminently.

The newborns are being looked after in one of the aquarium’s nursery displays where they all appear to be in excellent condition.

Pipefish are closely related to seahorses and, like them, it is the male that incubates the eggs and gives birth to the young.

Baby pipefish due at the Blue Planet Aquarium

Rows of eggs are laid by the female onto a special pad on the male’s belly, and here the eggs develop.

Blue Planet Aquarium’s James Buchanan said: “We have only had this particular species here at the aquarium since January.

“We have 20 adults, of which two are due to give birth any time now and several others are showing clear signs of being pregnant.

“Each male can give birth to up to 200 young so we could well be in for a real baby boom over the coming weeks.

“When they hatch the babies are identical miniature versions of their parents, only a fraction of the size.”

The young are born free swimming with relatively little or no yolk sac, and begin feeding immediately. From the time they hatch they are totally independent.

Pipefish feed on small crustaceans such as mysid shrimps and tiny creatures called copepods. An adult greater pipefish needs to eat several hundred tiny shrimps in one day.

UK waters are home to six different species of pipefish and two species of seahorse.

In the wild, pipefish live in relatively shallow waters over sandy seabeds or rough ground among seaweed and eel grasses.

Like seahorses, pipefish are extremely slow moving fish and have developed a hard, armour-like outer skeleton to help protect them against would-be predators.

They are often present in rockpools although their seaweed-like bodies mean they are extremely well camouflaged and easily overlooked.