Bargibant's pygmy seahorse
Hippocampus bargibanti
Sighting evidence at Manado Tua Wall, Manado
Photo: Julian Hsu · CC BY-NC
One of the smallest vertebrates in the ocean, Bargibant's pygmy seahorse lives its entire adult life on a single Muricella sea fan, matching the host's colour and polyp texture so precisely that it went undiscovered until a biologist found one on a fan already collected for a museum. Each individual grips the fan with its prehensile tail and ambushes copepods drifting by in the current. Because they are sedentary and cryptic, sightings depend almost entirely on guide experience; once spotted, the same individual can often be relocated for months.
Evidence at this site
No confirmed records on file at this site
Bargibant's pygmy seahorse is listed as a curated species here based on historical reports.