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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