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Animal profile

Bargibant's Pygmy Seahorse

Hippocampus bargibanti

ActinopterygiiExclusively on Muricella gorgonian sea fans on reef slopes, typically fifteen to forty metresLeast Concern

Field profile

A seahorse under two centimetres long, covered in bulbous tubercles that match the polyps of its host gorgonian. It lives its entire adult life on a single sea fan. It was discovered only because a collected coral was examined in a laboratory.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2023-07-03

Bargibant's Pygmy Seahorse

The pygmy seahorse was found after collection

Hippocampus bargibanti was never spotted on the reef. It came to science in 1969 when a gorgonian sea fan collected for a museum was examined in the laboratory and two seahorses were noticed still clinging to it.

Read with evidence →

Bargibant's Pygmy Seahorse | Daily Animal Facts