Pygmy Seahorse
Pygmy Seahorse
Hippocampus bargibanti
RareSyngnathidaeHarmless
ID points
- Under 2 cm long, smaller than a fingernail
- Body tubercles look exactly like the polyps of its host sea fan
- Stays on the same sea fan for its whole life
Basics
- Family
- Syngnathidae
- Length
- 1–2 cm
- Depth
- 10-40 m
- Regions
- Indo-Pacific reefs
- Distribution
- On sea fans of tropical coral reefs
- Habitat
- Sea fans on tropical reef slopes
- Diet
- Small planktonic crustaceans
Easily confused with
SeahorseHead set at almost a right angle to the body; floats upright
Big-belly SeahorseBelly especially swollen, one of the largest of all seahorses
Weedy SeadragonRed-purple ground covered with yellow spots and fine silvery white barsFun fact
At just 1.5 cm long, the pygmy seahorse is one of the smallest seahorses in the world. Its colour matches the gorgonian sea fan it lives on so exactly that it is almost impossible to spot. Georges Bargibant found the first one by accident in 1969 while examining a batch of coral specimens, and Whitley formally described and named it in 1970. Like all seahorses, it is the male who broods the eggs and raises the young.