Sensational new SA seahorse discovered

Writer: Anina Lee.

Recently I have written about amazing tiny animals that delight us when we see them close up through macro-photography. There were brilliantly patterned nudibranchs (sea slugs) and the tiny dancing peacock spiders.

Now we have another – this time a tiny fish. Just recently a brand-new species of pygmy seahorse was discovered in Sodwana Bay on the north-eastern coast of South Africa. What was so remarkable about this discovery is that pygmy seahorses were thought to be confined to Indonesian waters, living on coral reefs. They had never before been found in the Indian Ocean, and certainly not 3 000 km away in South Africa.

But before I describe this remarkable little critter, let’s look at seahorses in general.

Bargibant’s pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) blends in with the coral on which it lives.

The highly-endangered Knysna seahorse (Hippocampus capensis) is endemic to South Africa and is the only seahorse species known to exclusively inhabit estuaries.

The new species of pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus nalu) that was recently discovered in Sodwana Bay.

A unique and unusual characteristic of seahorses is that the males carry the babies in a true pregnancy, with up to 200 babies hatching after a gestation period of 14 – 45 days.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 15)