Scientific Name
Hippocampus waleananus
Common Name
Walea pygmy seahorse
Biology
Extremely small (height 16.8mm, standard length 17.8mm); 12 trunks rings; tail elongate with 32 tail rings; 12 dorsal fin rays; 9 pectoral fin rays; anal fin absent (at least in one sex); eggs apparently brooded within trunk; medium length snout that lacks a bulbous tip; raised, angular coronet; fused gill openings on midline behind coronet supported by raised cleithral girdle; enlarged knob-like structures on head and trunk; paired laterally directed knob-like structures each with short fleshy filament on superior trunk ridge of the fifth trunk ring; last 28 tail rings each with small paired knobs on inferior tail ridge, fifth, ninth and twelfth tail rings with bilaterally paired enlarged knob-like structures on superior tail ridges; pale pinkish to yellowish with red to brown blotches, radiating bands from eye; body protuberances white, appearing as white spots (Ref. 80667).