Pygmy Seahorse

Photo: Julian Hsu · CC BY-NC

Bargibant's pygmy seahorses are found exclusively on gorgonian sea fans of the genus Muricella, to which they are perfectly colour-matched in either pink-red or yellow-orange forms depending on their host fan. These tiny fish, under 2.5 cm fully grown, spend their entire adult lives on a single fan, and are so cryptic that the species was discovered by accident when a fan was collected and examined in the lab. Their low mobility and extreme host specificity makes them vulnerable to any disturbance of the fan coral habitat on the wall.