Most divers who get into the water on a more or less regular basis have a bucket list of sea creatures they would like to tick off.
For many people, it is the “big stuff”, such as Manta Rays, Whale Sharks, Tiger Sharks, Hammerheads or as it is for me, the most oddly shaped Mola Mola.
Interestingly, the more we dive, the smaller and the more elusive the creatures become we love to find.
For a non-diver, it is almost impossible to comprehend how excited we can get when our guide points out a seahorse the size of a fingernail or a nudibranch as small as the head of a drawing pin.
Finding these little creatures is a real passion for many divers. Our eagle-eyed dive guides in Lembeh even carried a set of pointy sticks (used to point at marine life) of various sizes. The smallest one reminded me of a little metal skewer my mum uses for her Sunday roulades.
In the following series of blog posts, we want to take a closer look at elusive sea creatures such as frogfish, pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs and other vertebrates and Invertebrates that are hard to spot because they are either very small, very well camouflaged or just extremely rare.
If there are any such creatures on your bucket list that you would like us to write about, please feel free to drop us a line here on our blog or on Facebook or Instagram, and we happily add your creature to our list.
Pygmy Seahorse
I cannot remember when exactly I have seen my first pygmy seahorse, I believe it was on a wreck dive at the USAT Liberty Wreck in Tulamben, Bali in 2011.
The Bargibant
The species we found on this dive was a very cute, knobbly red and white Bargibant`s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Bargibanti, a wider spread and more commonly found species by scuba divers.
Hippocampus Bargibanti is one of the currently 8 named species of pygmy seahorses, and the first of its kind discovered.
The Bargibant was named after George Bargibant, the scientist who spotted it in 1969.
Only 8 species discovered
Interestingly, all remaining 7 species were only discovered in the first half of the 21st century, with Hippocampus Japapigu, the Japanese Pygmy Seahorse and Hippocampus Nalu, the Sodwana Pygmy Seahorse only found and named in 2018 and 2020.
Blending in is all!
Pygmy seahorses are tiny, they only grow to between 1.4 and 2.7 cm, measured from the tip of the tail to the end of the snout, and they are masters in camouflage.
To blend in with their surroundings, they can adjust their colour to the colour of the coral they live in. Their colouring ranges from bright red to dull grey. To perfect their camouflage, the Bargibant even developed calcified bumps, to exactly match the gorgonian sea fans they live in. With this amazing ability, these miniature creatures, almost become invisible.
Hence, most of the now known species have only been found in the past 10 years with scuba diving becoming more accessible.
Compared to their larger seahorse cousins, pygmy seahorses have adapted to live in tropical waters where they mostly live in gorgonian sea fans, particularly on current prone walls.
While the Bargibant only lives on one specific genus of gorgonian, others, such as the Denise, can be found in different genera of sea fans, and some pygmies live on other types of coral altogether.
What makes them different?
What else distinguishes these miniature seahorses from their larger relatives? Pygmy seahorses have a single gill opening on the back of their head, while all bigger species have a pair of gill openings on either side of their head.
Common features!
Regarding reproduction or better “child care”, all seahorses have in common that the male are responsible to carry the developing young.
When the female has a set of eggs ready, she transfers the unfertilized eggs into the male’s brood pouch, where they remain for up to 14 days. Once released from the clutch of eggs, the young drift with the ocean currents, filtering plankton, until they settle down on the reef. Initially dark, they change colour, adapting to their surrounding environment.
With their amazing camouflage, pygmy seahorses are not heavily predated.
For all fish nerds, here are all 8 pygmy seahorse species:
- Bargibant`s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Bargibanti, 1970
Highly habitat specialized only lives in one type of gorgonian coral of the species Muricella. - Denise’s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Denise, 2003
Found in a variety of gorgonian seafans. - Pontoh’s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Pontohi, 2008
Found in clumps of the calcareous alga, Halimeda, or on hydroids. - Satomi’s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Satomiae, 2008
Preferred habitat is rich coral walls, e.g. under overhangs with diverse soft coral growth. - Walea Soft Coral Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Waleananus, 2009
Lives only in the Tomini Gulf of central Sulawesi and relies entirely on the soft corals that it inhabits. - Coleman’s Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Colemani, 2003
- Japanese Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Japapigu, 2018
- South African or Sodwana Pygmy Seahorse Hippocampus Nalu, 2020