Absurd Creature of the Week: The Littlest, Most Adorable-est Seahorse Fits on Your Fingernail

[MerryBlooms]

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

For my money, this is the most confounding camo in the sea. While plenty of ocean critters blend in with their surroundings—the aptly named stonefish, for instance, looks much like a fish, and even more like a stone—and the cuttlefish famously changes its skin color and texture on the fly to match its surroundings, the pygmy seahorse goes about things differently. As a young ‘un, it’ll settle on coral, then adopt one of a number of colors to match and live the rest of its life in that outfit. That’s really, really weird for an animal.

Swimming the reefs of Australia and Southeast Asia are seven species of pygmy seahorse measuring between a half inch and an inch long, small enough to fit on your fingernail. But from here on out when I say “pygmy seahorse” I’m referring to just two, Bargibant’s and Denise’s pygmy seahorses, which stick to coral sea fans known as gorgonians. The other species are great and all, but these two are the most spectacular.

Gorgonians come in a range of colors, and this presents a problem for the seahorses. If, say, they were pink and could only find orange gorgonians instead of pink gorgonians, their camo would be worthless. So when a pygmy seahorse lands on a gorgonian as a black-hued juvenile, it begins an incredible transformation. “It lives on some gorgonians that are kind of warty and branched, and some that are smooth and a little bit darker red, or more pale,” says Steinhart Aquarium biologist Matt Wandell, who was the first to breed pygmy seahorses. “And so it’ll adapt to that color and that texture,” warts and all, over the course of a few days.

http://www.wired.com/2015/12/absurd-creature-of-the-week-the-littlest-most-adorable-est-seahorse-fits-on-your-fingernail/

[shenmue]

1. Squeeeeeeee

[MerryBlooms]

2. Crazy beautiful and fascinating.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Cutie

[MerryBlooms]

9. When I first saw the article, I expected some sort of toxic ending. lol Happy that was not the case.

[NV Whino]

4. Amazing critter

[MerryBlooms]

10. Yes, indeed.

[COLGATE4]

5. There's some really cool stuff still out there. nt

[dhill926]

6. looks like a little clown....

[niyad]

7. squeeeeee indeed.

[valerief]

8. That's the doggonest cutest thing I've seen in ages! nt

[Tab]

11. I want one!

Whose fingernail do I need to get?

[jmowreader]

14. One attached to a VERY advanced marine aquarist's hand

Seahorses are hard to keep, and the smaller they are the harder they are. Two problems: they're very sensitive to the condition of the water in your tank, and they don't have stomachs. They have to eat a lot more than a more-advanced fish of their size needs because any food they eat goes straight through. The excess food fouls the tank and kills off your animals if you don't have a great filtration system and water-change regimen.

[Tab]

16. No, I have no illusions about my being able to keep one alive

And when you say "the smaller they are the harder they are (to keep)". I'd think the first problem was simply finding.

However, I had good luck with my sea monkeys, we'd play cards and socialize at least two times a week.

[jmowreader]

17. Oh, that's cool. At least you have a start.

I must be a terrible person: When I saw these miniature seahorses, which are adorable, the first thing I thought was, "people who haven't kept aquariums before will buy these, and there'll be a trail of dead seahorses all across this land."

[Judi Lynn]

12. What's not to love about gorgonian sea horses? Maybe they are too cute.

[center][/center]
Thank you for introducing this new treasure.

[MNBrewer]

13. The power of Natural Selection never ceases to amaze!

[burrowowl]

15. K&R!!!!!!

Cute!