Seahorses are one of the those marine animals that you can’t help but fall in love with when you see them and the Pygmy versions are just as endearing as their larger relatives.

One of the most recent discoveries we have here in North Sulawesi is the Pontohi Seahorse. They are named after the dive guide who discovered them in the Bunaken National Marine Park in 2007.

Other Pygmy Seahorse like to live on Gorgonian Fans but the Pontohi has been found in living in Halmedia algae and Aglaephenia cupressinina hydriods. We have seen them at various depths between 5-20m.

As you can see from this photo they have a rounded trunk but when viewed from behind they look flat. They can range in colour from white/yellow to brown and red. They are a really rare find and this is partly down to their tiny size – they grow to a maximum size of around 20mm!

Thank you to Rohan for allowing us to use this photo – he was very happy with this sighting. An experienced Instructor with thousands of dives had never seen one of this beauties and he said it made his year when we found this for him last week! We have also found a few more of these guys at other sites, so why not book a trip to see us and you could be able to tick this off your Critter Wish List!