Hot on the heels of three new pygmy seahorses described at the end of 2008 another two have been added to the fray! Both live on soft corals and are found in very restricted geographical ranges. The first, the Walea soft coral pygmy sahorse (Hippocampus waleananus) (Pictured right), is found only in the Togian islands of central Sulawesi, Indonesia. I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks last year at Walea Resort who brought this amazing species to the attention of the scientific community. Most often the pygmy is found between 4 - 20 m where its soft coral host is most abundant.
The second species has been named after Helmut Debelius who is well known as a coral reef naturalist. H.debelius is the name of this new species that actually appears to be a dwarf seahorse rather than pygmy. It lives on the abundant bright red Dendronephthea soft corals commonly seen in the Red Sea where it is endemic.
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