More elusive little gems discovered

 

From all underwater wonders we encounter it is perhaps the pygmy seahorses that are the most amazing creatures.

So extreme is its camouflage that the first two original specimens were only noticed after their host gorgonian had been collected by Georges Bargibant for the Noumea Aquarium in New Caledonia in 1969. Georges realized what he had found only after he observed the fan in an aquarium!

Hippocampus bargibanti

The Hippocampus bargibanti appear to prefer the red polyp Muricella spp. that usually grows in depths of over 20 m.

I remember very well my first dive to see one of these gems. I had been diving a P 47 D aircraft wreck for several years when a dive guide and friend “Peter Wiesendanger” and I talked about seahorses. Peter had never seen “normal” seahorses while I had never before seen pygmy seahorses.

Just to give you an idea how elusive seahorses can be:

 I pointed Peter to a place 10 meter from where he was standing, while he pointed me to a place only 150m away!!!
The place Peter revealed to me was a gorgonian fan right under the wing of one of the P 47 D aircraft wrecks I had discovered and dived uncountable times without knowing that I was just centimeters distance of one of these jewels. Had I not known pygmy seahorses existed? No, I had been searching for them, however did not realized just how tiny they really are!

Peter returned happy to his ship too, but not before letting me know he had not only found the 5 Hippocampus kuda, but he had even seeing them giving birth!!! I dived the 5 H. kuda in front of our jetty several times a week but NEVER seen them giving birth!!! Bad luck!

The H. bargibanti comes in different colors. Yellow being one of them. Randy Lenon our most senior dive guide and Hawks eye critter spotter, located the first one I ever heard off at South Kri. This is just a few hundred meters from our resort. I didn’t believe Otto at first, till I found one myself. I got what I deserved for not believing Otto, because when I went back to show my find I first searched a wrong corner of the reef and when I found an exactly same size fan in pink with pink H. bargibanti in them I seriously thought I had suffered nitrogen narcosis! I (much) later that dive did re-discover them and this gem is now on the cover of Michael Aw’s book “Richest Reefs – Indonesia”

 

Hippocampus denise 

An other friend of ours, Denise Tackett is a real pygmy expert. Several years ago she told me to have spent more than 156 hours in the water with these creatures! Knowing this, it will be no surprise that since March 2003 we have the Hippocampus denise. Correct, named after this amazing lady!

 It took us a day to find the first H. denise after Denise Tackett told us about her find. We now show them to all our guest, however the H. denise is much less common than the H. Bargibanti and also there are less individuals in each fan.

 When Michael wrote in his book:  “If Lembeh Strait is the realm of the Pygmy seahorse, Raja Ampat is the Kingdom of the Pygmies”. He did not know yet how right he was.

 

 

  

   

Hippocampus pontohi ???

 

About a year ago one of our guest Randy Lenon, discovered again a new pygmy. Randy had been diving the Bunaken area where a local guide Hence Pontoh found a possible new pygmy. This gem is temporary named Hippocampus pontohi.

Sara Lourie, an other very enthusiast lady connected to “project Seahorse” is currently studying these finds to see if this is indeed a new species or possible the Indonesian version of the also recently discovered Hippocampus colemani. This elusive critter was discovered by Neville Coleman (the nudibranch guy) at Lord Howe Island in 2001 in a lagoon in 3 meters of water, eight meters of the dive site mooring. A site dived by thousands of divers over 25 years!!!

 As you can see in the pictures from Randy, Gosse and Patrick, the newest discoveries look like possible 2 different species beside the one now called pontohi.

We are waiting for the experts to let us know the correct names!

 

 

       

    Max Ammer 2004