The cape seahorse or Knysna seahorse (Hippocampus capensis) is a species of fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 in the Syngnathidae

Syngnathidae

Syngnathidae is a family of fish which includes the seahorses, the pipefishes, and the weedy and leafy sea dragons. The name is derived from Greek, meaning "fused jaw" - syn meaning fused or together, and gnathus meaning jaws. This fused jaw trait is something the entire family has in common...

 family. It is endemic to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. It lives in the Keurbooms River in Plettenberg Bay

Plettenberg Bay

Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plet or Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there were 29149 population...

 throughout the Knysna Lagoon and up to Swartvlei in Sedgefield. The limited range of this seahorse (the smallest-known of any seahorse) puts it at great risk of extinction. It feeds on a variety of zooplankton

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...

. Recent surveys by the ORCA Foundation in Plettenberg Bay have shown that the population in Plettenberg Bay has diminished from floods in 2007 and the more recent floods in 2011.

Description

The Knysna seahorse is a small, delicate creature from 5 to 11 centimetres long. It is a mottled greenish brown colour, sometimes with scattered dark spots and possesses the characteristic seahorse shape. The body is encased in a series of bony rings, the snout is relatively short and the neck arches in a smooth curve without a crown. The tail is muscular and is used to grasp a mate during courtship or to anchor the fish to the substrate.

Biology

Seahorses have a remarkable method of reproduction; the female transfers her eggs into the male's pouch during mating. The eggs are fertilised within the pouch and embryos develop, embedded in the tissue lining the pouch wall of the 'pregnant' male. For the Knysna seahorse, the gestation

Gestation

Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....

 period is around 2 - 3 weeks after which time the male ejects his offspring which are then extremely vulnerable, receiving no further parental care.

Seahorses have no teeth and no stomach. They lurk among the vegetation using camouflage

Camouflage

Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...

 to ambush small prey

Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey . Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption...

items which they then swallow whole. They are not particularly mobile creatures, being propelled forward only by movements of their dorsal fin.

External links

• IOL News: Single seahorse dad mourns loss of wife