Seahorse @ Komodo, Indonesia

by Travel Tips and Stories

The waters around Indonesia’s Komodo National Park are home to various species of seahorse. The best known and most remarkable is the pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti). This tiny creature is world-famous amongst divers for its perfect camouflage, which is so effective that the species was only discovered in the 20th century.
Here is a specific overview of this unique seahorse in the waters of Komodo:
Characteristics of the Komodo Pygmy Seahorse
Size: Very small. They grow to a maximum of 1 to 2.7 centimetres.
Appearance: They have a rounded head and a short snout. The body is covered with large, spherical tubercles that are identical to the polyps of their host coral.
Colours: They occur in two main variants: grey with red tubercles and yellow with orange tubercles.
Habitat and Behaviour
Exclusive host: They live exclusively on fan corals (gorgonians). They spend their entire lives on a single specific fan coral at depths between 10 and 40 metres.
Camouflage: Their colour and texture mimic the coral so perfectly that they are almost invisible to the naked eye.
Diet: They filter microscopic crustaceans (zooplankton) from the seawater.
Reproduction: As with other seahorses, the male carries the eggs in a brood pouch inside his body until they hatch.
Other species in Komodo
In addition to the pygmy seahorse, you may also encounter the larger spiny seahorses (Hippocampus histrix) in the Komodo area. Unlike their tiny cousins, these live on sandy bottoms, amongst seagrass and soft coral.