Hippocampus denise

Denise's pygmy seahorse or yellow pygmy seahorse (of which I don't know if other pygmy seahorses are yellow, but I do know that most seahorses are yellow) is one of the smallest seahorseshttps://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/102818-Hippocampus-denise. Identification as a new species credited to Lourie & Randall in 2003. It seems that they may be particularly good at camouflaging themselves around their native seafans.https://projectseahorse.org/denises-pygmy-seahorse-a-champion-hide-and-seeker/https://projectseahorse.org/iseahorse/explore/species/Even I could see it from the pictures before I read the article. They only come in colors of beige, yellow, and orange with some darker specks or white marks, depending on what their home seafan looks like and perhaps other factors like mood. Unlike other seahorse species, their pictures on websites seem to be relatively consistant- the main differences that I can see between individuals is smooth versus bumpy, acne-like bodies. Thus this is either sex or age-related, or a matter of being confused only with a close relative rather than farther ones of various species. They don't get bigger than 2.5 cm, usually being smaller than that.https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/summary/Hippocampus-denise.html They are named after underwater photographer Denise Tackett, who was scuba diving with the woman who first described the pygmy seahorses, who is named Sara Lourie. They did this in 1999 in the Lembeh Strait.https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Denise%27s_pygmy_seahorse&oldid=1177673452
From what I can see based off of observations, those off of Romblon island have a smoother connection to the snout then those off of the north of Cebu island. Their bumps are also larger and rounder considerably. On the west and east of Cebu island, they are large again. There aren't enough observations on south Bohol to be sure, but they appear to have some space on their side-neck and less bumps overall. By the time we get to the Sulu sea, most of them don't have many bumps and some even have thin ones, though some of those pictured are fries. This trend fades at north Indonesia and Brunei. But some of those depicted are smoother or smooth, and less fry-like. It seems like it's only in northwest Australia and the Greater Sunda Island where they actually get to be yellow instead of beige or orange. Anyways, someone with a better eye might be able to discern those images better than I.https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=102818
== References ==
Category:Seahorses