They’re very hard to spot because:
-they blend in with the coral
– and they’re small
They are as small as your fingernail.
So you swim by, never seeing the little gems that clutch the coral…
They are Pygmy seahorses!
How many times did I miss them in my dives around Bonaire and Tahiti? Could there have been dozens of Pygmy seahorses, all watching me?
Let’s look at what I might have seen if I had looked closely:
They look more like little candies than real seahorses!
Now let’s have a bit of I Spy fun! How hard is it to spot the Pygmy seahorses in the photos below?
Woohoo, that last one is a doozy to see! Did you spot him?
And here’s the newest Pygmy seahorse discovered…so new, it’s not even named yet.
I like the little star shapes all over him. I would name him the Star seahorse…what would you name him?
And here is a two-minute Nat Geo video of these seahorses; each the size of a grain of rice…or the top part of this exclamation point!
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/08/tiny-pygmy-seahorse-discovered-japan-news/