Pacific Seahorse

SCIENTIFIC NAME:
 
Hippocampus ingens

🇪🇸 Common name (ES): Caballito de mar del Pacífico

🇺🇸 Common name (EN): Pacific Seahorse

 

CLASSIFICATION

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Actinopterygii

Order:

Syngnathiformes

Family:

Syngnathidae

Genus:

Hippocampus

Species:

Hippocampus ingens

DISTRIBUTION IN COSTA RICA

●  1 – Bat Islands
●  2 – Gulf of Papagayo
●  3 – Catalina Islands
●  4 – Osa Peninsula
●  5 – Golfo Dulce
●  6 – Cocos Island

 

DEPTH RANGE

General: 1–30 m (3–98 ft)

Common: 3–15 m (10–49 ft)

    

 

HABITAT

Rocky bottoms, reefs, seagrass beds, sponges and algae.

HOW TO IDENTIFY IT

  • Length: 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in).
  • Variable coloration: yellow, brown, orange, pink or gray, with patches and spots.
  • Body covered in bony plates arranged in rings; horse-shaped head.
  • Long, tubular snout.
  • A coronet with spines or short filaments on top of the head.
  • Eyes move independently in different directions.
  • Prehensile tail without a caudal fin, used for gripping.

SIMILAR SPECIES

  • Lined Seahorse (Hippocampus erectus): Found in the Caribbean.
  • Longsnout Seahorse (Hippocampus reidi): Described in the notes as smaller, with a pattern of dark and light bands.

SIGHTING FREQUENCY

  • ●○○○○ Rare

 

 

REPRODUCTION

  • Males mature at 5–6 months, at a length of 7–8 cm (2.8–3.1 in); females at 6–7 months, at 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in).
  • Ovoviviparous, with internal fertilization.
  • The male receives the female’s eggs and incubates them in his brood pouch until the young are born fully formed and independent.
  • Each reproductive cycle may produce 100 to more than 1,000 young.

 

 

BEHAVIOR

  • Calm and a weak swimmer, moving slowly using its small dorsal fin.
  • Excellent camouflage: can change color and texture to blend into its surroundings.

 

 

DIET

  • Carnivorous.
  • Small crustaceans, fish larvae, zooplankton and other invertebrates, sucked in through its snout.