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The pygmy seahorse is both tiny and well camouflaged.It is very difficult to spot amongst the sea grasses, soft corals, or gorgonians (sea fans) that it inhabits. Other distinctive pygmy seahorse characteristics include a fleshy head and body, a very short snout, and a long, prehensile tail.
Hippocampus bargibanti, also known as Bargibant's seahorse or the pygmy seahorse, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae found in the central Indo-Pacific area. [3]This pygmy seahorse is tiny—usually less than 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in size—and lives exclusively on gorgonian sea-fans, as its coloration and physical features expertly mimic the coral for camouflage. [4]
The weedy pygmy seahorse is a small fish which can reach a maximum length of approximately 1.7 cm, which makes it one of the smallest representatives of the seahorses. [4] The body is small and slender with a prehensile tail. The head is relatively large, it represents about 25% of the size of the body. [4] The eyes are prominent.
Pygmy seahorses have a single gill opening on the back of the head (instead of two on the sides as in normal seahorses), and the males brood their young inside their trunk, instead of in a pouch on the tail. [11] A molecular phylogeny confirms that the pygmy seahorses are a monophyletic sister lineage of all other seahorses. [10]
Satomi's pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus satomiae) is the smallest known seahorse in the world with an average length of 13.8 millimetres (0.54 in) and an approximate height of 11.5 millimetres (0.45 in). [4] This member of the family Syngnathidae is found at the Derawan Islands off Kalimantan.
Because pygmy seahorses are so small — about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) long — divers tend to photograph them in extreme close-ups, which include detailed views of nearby corals. On iNaturalist ...
The Hippocampus nalu's highly different spine morphology along the superior trunk ridge also differentiates the species from its fellow pygmy seahorse. [7] Being a pygmy seahorse, H. nalu is very small, with juveniles being ~10 mm long and adults growing up to a length of 2 centimetres. [2] [8]
The pygmy seahorse not only makes certain species of gorgonians its home, but also closely resembles its host, thus is well camouflaged. [12] Two species of pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti and Hippocampus denise, are obligate residents on gorgonians. H. bargibanti is limited to two species in the single genus Muricella.