Interactions
As stated in the
Habitat and
Geopgraphy section, Pygmy seahorses inhabit few types
of corals and sea fans. The organism is most commonly found on
gorgonian sea fans, where they will live between 3 and 40 weeks
on each fan. They will move to different areas of the fan over
that time, but they have not been seen moving from one fan to
the next (Baine et al. 2008).
The two most common sea fans this organism is found on
is Muricella plectana and Muricella paraplectana. It was
discussed in the
Form and Function section that the Bargibant’s seahorse
camouflages itself to the species of coral it lives on.
Muricella plectana is a purple/ pink color with red/ pink polyps
on its surface, where the Muricella paraplectana is yellow in
color with orange polyps on the surface. Hippocampus bargibanti
feeds on these sea fans for many weeks at a time, without them
giving anything back to the fans, making these tiny organisms a
parasite to the Muricella (Teske et al. 2004).
To see some interesting facs about Hippocampus bargibanti,
click
here.
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