Divers usually get to the point where, after hunting all kinds of different critters, they pick their personal “obsession”. Whether these are Cephalopods, Crustaceans, Gobies, Nudibranchs or Frogfishes – so my weak spot have always been Seahorses. Here in Lembeh, we can find up to six different species on one dive!
The Denise Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus denise) is one of the several Pygmy Seahorses to be seen in Lembeh Strait. Like its bigger cousin – the Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorse – it lives in Seafans. But this species is not restricted to one type of seafan. It can be found it different types of seafans AND in…
After leaving in mid-May to spend some time quality time with the big pelagics in Mexico, Costa Rica, and the U.S., I’m back to stay for a while at NAD. After embarking on my open-ended trip to Indonesia last August, I spent eight of the past twelve months split between Bali and Lembeh, and have…
The Pygmy Seahorses are without doubt among the most attractive critters – they are cryptic, hard to find but yet beautiful. And for a lot of divers the Pontohi Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus pontohi or Weedy Pygmy Seahorse) is even more special than other Pygmy Seahorses. The Pontohi Pygmy Seahorse was first seen in 2003 in…
This Picture of our Repeater Guest Mood shows a beautiful Pygmy seahorse found by our dive guide Paulus. Paulus has found already several of them over the last 10 years – but not many. And this is one of them. It is most probably a variation of the Denise Pygmy Seahorse and usually found in…
To follow a guest request we went to see a sea fan with Denise Pygmy Seahorses on yesterday’s morning dives. This particular fan had 3 individuals living in it. As the seafan is easiely accessable from both sides, they are very cool to watch. Two of them had big blown up bellies and were obviously pregnant.…
The Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorse (hippocampus bargibanti) is the most common Pygmy Seahorse and found all over the Indo-Pacific region. It was the first Pygmy Seahorse that has been discovered (1969) and still counts as the classic Pygmy Seahorse. It grows to maximum 2 cm, lives only in Muricella Seafans and matches the colour of their…