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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 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.
On iNaturalist, 489 photos of the seahorses also included evidence of worms, the researchers reported. Images of pygmy seahorses taken by scuba divers were crawling with worm photobombs.
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]
Denise's pygmy seahorse uses adaptive camouflage, changing its color to match that of the surrounding gorgonians. [4] It feeds on small crustaceans and other zooplankton. [6] An individual will stay on a single coral for the duration of its entire life. The species is ovoviviparous, and it is the male who broods the eggs in its ventral brood pouch.
Most pygmy seahorses are well camouflaged and live in close association with other organisms including colonial hydrozoans (Lytocarpus and Antennellopsis), coralline algae , and sea fans (Muricella, Annella, and Acanthogorgia). This combined with their small size accounts for why most species have only been noticed and classified since 2001.
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.
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