Form and Function

     Hippocampus bargibanti is a very small organism with the largest recorded height at 2.4 cm (Lourie et al. 2004). As stated in the Habitat and Geography section, the Pygmy seahorse camouflages itself with the coral it lives in. It is either a purple with pink/red tubercles, which is found on the plant Muricella plectana, or it is yellow and had orange tubercles, which is found on Muricella paraplectana (Lourie and Foster 2004). You can learn more about these two host species in the Interaction with Other Species page.
     H. bargibanti is not known to move around much and is rarely been seen moving from one coral to the next. It is unknown whether the organism can live on one species of coral and camouflage, and them move to the other species and change color to camouflage with that coral(Lourie and Foster 2004).
     Not much was found on how H. bargibanti feeds specifically, but it is known that most seahorses suck up prey through their snout when prey comes near(Foster and Vincent 2004). Pygmy seahorses have a smaller snout, but it is assumed they do the same. Seahorses eat mostly small crustaceans and mollusks, but may eat plants unintentionally(Do et al. 1998). Once again, not much is stated about what preys on this organism, but for all seahorses in general, they are preyed on by many fish, urchins, and one case of a loggerhead turtle (Kuiter 2000, Burke et al. 1993).

To learn about how these organisms reproduce, click here.

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