Pygmy Seahorse Species Explosion!

Pygmy seahorses, if you can see them, must be some of the cutest reef critters and are often at the top of wish lists for divers in the Asia-Pacific region. Bargibant’s pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) was the first species to be named back in 1970. In 2003 both Denise’s (H. denise) and Coleman’s (H. colemani) species were named. Within the last few months, five more have been officially named and scientifically described.

At the end of last year, three new species were named as Pontoh’s (H. pontohi), Severn’s (H. severnsi) and Satomi’s (H. satomiae) pygmies, with specimens all from Indonesia. Unlike their cousins Denise’s and Bargibant’s, they do not live on gorgonian corals but can be found anywhere on the reef hiding amongst hydroids or algal clumps. These are some of the smallest pygmies yet, with all the new species reaching less than 2 cm in length. They have been found throughout Indonesia, Borneo and I have seen Severn’s pygmy as far afield as Fiji!

Colouration is probably the best method for identifying the new species. Pontoh’s species is white or off-white in colour with a single red filament on the head and two on the back.

Severn’s is brown with a transparent tail and red or orange blotches on the body. It also has a filament on the head and a pair on the back, but they are transparent in this species.

Satomi’s pygmy smaller in size and uniformly beige in colour with small orange blotches on the head, back and tail. It also often has a small black spot between the eye and snout.

To add to this glut of new pygmies, two more were named within the past few weeks! The Walea soft-coral pygmy (H. waleananus) is known only from the Togian islands of central Sulawesi and lives exclusively on the surface of beige soft corals. It is beige in colour and covered in tiny white specks. It also has an extraordinarily long tail to enable it to grasp its host, which can have quite variable branch sizes.

The final species is another with a restricted range as it is only known from the Red Sea. It has been named Debelius’s pygmy seahorse after the eminent naturalist Helmut Debelius. There are several anatomical features of this species that distinguish it from the true pygmy seahorses, so perhaps it would be better described as a dwarf pygmy seahorse. Like the Walea pygmy it lives on bright red soft corals abundant in the Red Sea.

The discovery of so many new species of pygmy seahorses just goes to show how little we know about the environment and why it is so vital that we do all we can to protect it for future generations. Surely there are many more species of pygmy seahorses to be found, but perhaps not plenty more fish in the sea!

By Richard Smith – www.OceanRealmImages.com