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Potbelly Seahorse
Hippocampus bleekeri Fowler, 1908
A Potbelly Seahorse a depth of 10 m, Norfolk Bay, Tasmania, August 2005. Photo © D. Giblin. View larger image.
The Potbelly Seahorse is one of the largest species of seahorses, growing to 30 cm in length. It has more tail rings than any other seahorse species, a low coronet, and as the common name implies, adults have very big 'bellies'.
The colouration of the Big-bellied Seahorse is variable. It can be grey, brown, orange, yellow. It often has dark spots and long filaments on the head or body. The colouration appears correlated with habitat.
The Potbelly Seahorse lives in a range of habitats from shallow areas of seagrass to deeper sponge gardens.
It is an endemic species that occurs in temperate marine waters from the eastern Victoria and Tasmania to South Australia.
The Potbelly Seahorse looks similar to the Bigbelly Seahorse. The two species can be separated by the Bigbelly Seahorse's shorter snout, the more common presence of head filaments in the Potbelly Seahorse, and their disjunct distributions.
Related links
- Bigbelly Seahorse fact sheet
- View an x-ray image of this species.
- View the Family Syngnathidae list
- View the Seahorses list
Further reading
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing Pp. 240.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2001. Revision of the Australian Seahorses of the Genus Hippocampus (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae) with Descriptions of Nine New Species. Records of the Australian Museum. 53: 293-340.
