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Common Seahorse
Hippocampus taeniopterus Bleeker, 1852
A preserved Common Seahorse from the Australian Museum Fish Collection (AMS I.38392-001). This fish was caught off Coconut Beach, Lizard Island, Queensland, January 1996.
Female Common Seahorses are usually yellow with a few large dark spots. Males are grey to brown with striations on the head and fine dark spots on the trunk.
Common Seahorses grow to 22cm in height.
This species usually occurs in pairs. It is found in seagrass beds, in tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
In Australia it is known from near Darwin, Northern Territory and northern to southern Queensland.
The Common Seahorse is listed in many references as H.kuda (see Kuiter 2000 in further reading).
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437.
- 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.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Seahorses, Pipefishes and their Relatives. A Comprehensive Guide to Syngnathiformes. TMC Publishing Pp. 240.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
