Dwarf Seahorse

The dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus zosterae) is among the smallest seahorses, no more than about 2.5 centimeters tall, and lives in shallow seagrass beds off Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas. Like all seahorses, the males become pregnant.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Dwarf Seahorse in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Vertebrates lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

The female deposits her eggs in the male's brood pouch, where he fertilizes them and nourishes the embryos until they hatch. He then gives birth to fully formed miniatures. This reversal of roles is a favorite example in studies of sexual selection.

Pairs reunite each morning with a dance of color changes and tail-holding. Seahorses anchor themselves to seagrass with prehensile tails and wait for small crustaceans, which they suck up with their tube-like snouts.

Seagrass loss from coastal development and nutrient pollution removes the dwarf seahorse's home. See Neptune Grass for a Mediterranean seagrass.

• Neptune Grass — seagrass habitat
• Ocellaris Clownfish — another reef fish with unusual reproduction