Beautiful variation of Hippocampus denise

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 the Raja Ampat area. But sometimes also here in Lembeh Strait. Unlike the “ordinary” Denise it has little Bumps – much like the Hippocamus bargibanti. But it has clearly the Body Shape of the Denise. Some people also say, that it might be a separate species – which we don’t think. Denise Pygmy Seahorses are (unlike Bargibantis) to be seen in different species of seafans … so this might be just be a better adapted variation to a specific kind of seafan.