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Pygmy Seahorse
Hippocampus bargibanti Whitley, 1970
Above and below: Pygmy Seahorses at Bootless Bay, Papua New Guinea.
The Pygmy Seahorse has a short snout, rounded knob-like coronet and irregular bulbous tubercles on the body. It has a rounded spine above each eye and on each cheek.
Two colour morphs are recorded for this species, one is pale grey or purple with pink or red tubercles, the second is yellow with orange tubercles. Both are found only on gorgonians (sea fans) of the genus Muricella, in depths of 16-40m.
The Pygmy Seahorse grows to 2cm in length.
It is remarkably well camouflaged. The colour of the fish matches the gorgonian it inhabits, and the body tubercles look very similar to the polyps of the gorgonian.
This species is known from coral reefs of the Western Pacific including Australia.
Further reading
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing Pp. 240.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2001. Revision of the Australian Seahorses of the Genus Hippocampus (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae) with Descriptions of Nine New Species. Records of the Australian Museum. 53: 293-340.
- Lourie, S.A., Vincent, C.J. & H.J. Hall. 1999. Seahorses. An Identification Guide to the World's Species and their Conservation. Project Seahorse. Pp. 214.
- Whitley, G.P. 1970. [Bargibant's sea-horse from New Caledonia] in Abstracts of Proceedings. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 94(3) No.421:294.
