Have you heard about the smallest marine animal in the ocean? Correct, it is the Pygmy Seahorse. U
nbelievable to hear that because of its small appearance this species of seahorses was actually found in a lab and not in the ocean. Let’s find out the most amazing facts about the tiny sea animal.
1. Finding a Pygmy – not the easiest job
Pygmy Seahorses with their short snout and their long prehensile tail appear basically in three different colours: Grey or purple bodies with red or pink tubercles or even yellow bodies with orange tubercles. The colour depends on the host they are living on. The host can be a coral, algae or sea grass. Most of the times you will find them on corals. Well, finding them is easier said than done. For the reason of their camouflaged body, which fits perfectly to their host and their small size of maximum 2cm they are counting as hiding experts in the ocean.
2. No swimmer? No Problem!
They are small but that doesn’t mean they cannot be smart. Because Pygmy Seahorses are bad swimmers and cannot deal with the current they use their tail as an anchor on their host. So their tail is not just very cute but also very meaningful.
3. Eat, sleep – repeat…
Being small also means eating huge amounts of food is not possible. For the reason that they have no stomach they have eat all along in order to survive. Pygmy Seahorses dealing quite good with it – their solution is staying relaxed and rotate between eating and sleeping, except in the pairing season when things get a little bit more stressful.
4. Parent, I don’t need you!
Due to the fact that the Pygmy is a species of seahorses, like all seahorses the male seahorse gives birth to the babies. The new born Pygmy babies are the smallest creatures in the ocean and after all they are experiencing no parent care at all. So even they are the tiniest creatures alive they have to take care for themselves from the very beginning of their life. That, I guess, makes them really really brave and smart.
5. Come to Bali and have a look at the Pygmys!
Last but not least there are existing 9 different species of Pygmy Seahorses. This is the number of Pygmy species which is counted until now. However, researchers are not sure about the real number of species because they are so hard to find in th
e ocean. Typically you can find them around Indonesia, Australia, Japan and New Caledonia. Here in Bali we see quite many of these cute seahorses.
What do you think about the tiny sea animal? Do you have further details to add? We would also love to hear about your favourite sea animal! Let us know in the comments, we will be glad to read about it.
