The Pontohi Pygmy Seahorse is a highlight of diving in Bunaken but it is a master at hiding so you need to have a very keen eye to spot them. Luckily for us, our guides have great spotting skills and know just where to look to find the elusive pygmy.
Hippocampus pontohi or Pontoh’s pygmy seahorse is named after the Indonesian dive guide that first identified this species – Pontoh, who is actually from Bunaken Island and discovered the species in 2008. No wonder our guides love finding them so much! As one of the smallest representatives of the seahorse family the pontohi species of pygmy can reach a maximum length of approximately 1.7cm and feeds on tiny crustaceans and plankton. The body is slender with a prehensile tail and a relatively large head, about 25% of the total size. Found in central Indo-Pacific, in eastern Indonesia and in Papua New Guinea these little guys like reef walls with some current and plenty of algae and plankton to feed on.
If you haven’t seen the pontohi yet then you need to find yourself someone that knows where to look. At Two Fish Divers the dive guides love a challenge, so if the pontohi pygmy seahorse tries to hide in Bunaken they will try even harder to find it for you.
This week Mike Toupin from the U.S.A was diving in Bunaken with us for just a few days but he made the most of it with 4 dives each day, including night dives. His dive guide, Geraldo is always keen to show off his spotting skills and he did a great job finding the pictured seahorse (above) for Mike to capture. Hopefully next time you can stay for longer Mike!
On the boat with Mike was a group of 9 experienced divers that completed 5 days of diving at Two Fish Divers Lembeh before coming here to experience the best of diving in Bunaken. Known as the muck diving capital of the world, the Lembeh Strait, offers a plethora of weird and wonderful creatures living on the bottom – also trying their best to hide. Bunaken lets you explore endless coral reefs which are teeming with fish and turtles on breathtaking walls. Diving in both Bunaken and Lembeh is a great combo which a lot of our guests try to do. Thanks to Victor and your group for visiting us in North Sulawesi, we hope you come back soon.
Some new divers were welcomed to the underwater world this week in Bunaken too. Benoit and Cass completed their PADI Open Water course with Maia and then went straight on to complete the PADI Advanced Open Water Course, a great way to build on freshly learned skills, well done guys! Yuko and Kobi tagged along for the Advanced course and overcame some fears of the dark to complete a night dive and 4 other adventure dives and achieve the rating of PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. With the assistance of our newly certified Divemaster Benjamin, these guys enjoyed some amazing dives while they were training. Great Job! Also learning to dive and their first time underwater, Raj and Danshu from India completed the PADI Open Water and Scuba Diver courses respectively and then went to Lembeh for something completely different. They won’t be disappointed. With 4 new Enriched Air Nitrox Divers, 3 Divemaster Trainees, Discover Scuba Diving and snorkeling happening too, it is never a dull moment at Two Fish Divers Bunaken!
Are you interested in joining us in North Sulawesi at Two Fish Divers for diving in Bunaken or Lembeh? To make a reservation or for more information, fill in the form below and we will get right back to you!
