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Severn's pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus severnsi) is a free-living species described in 2008. They are almost the same shape as Pontoh's pygmy seahorse, but are a different colour: pale brown with red and orange patches. They can be found on any part of the reef, but often on hydroids and algal turf in pairs or small group.
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.
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.
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]
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.
In 2013, after completing his PhD on the biology of the Bargibant's and Denise's pygmy seahorses, Richard Smith went to a fish biology conference in Okinawa in 2013, after which he photographed the Japanese pygmy seahorse on several dives off of Hachijo-jima, one of the Izu Islands about 180 miles from Tokyo. There he found about a dozen specimens.
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]
Hippocampus nalu, the Sodwana pygmy seahorse, [2] [3] African pygmy seahorse [2] or Honeypot seahorse, [2] is a South African species of pygmy seahorse in the family Syngnathidae. [ 4 ] Discovery