Hippocampus kelloggi

The great seahorse (Hippocampus kelloggi), also known as Kellogg’s seahorse, is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae. It is one of the largest of the 54 species of seahorse. It is found in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically documented from the coast of East Africa to Japan. It was also recently identified around both northern and southern Australia. They frequent areas with an abundance of coral so they can latch on to something. Though often found in shallow waters, they have been recorded in depths of over 100 meters, with the deepest recorded seahorse at 152 meters below the surface. They like to eat small shellfish in the wild, like crustaceans and shrimp. They eat very slowly, and often they eat things that float by them while they remain stationary. Little else is known about the diet of the great seahorse. In studies about the related Hippocampus abdominalis, however, seahorses were found to rely heavily on stealth to get food. H. abdominalis, which is also a large seahorse species, was also observed with copepods and isopods in its stomach contents, though it was in much smaller frequencies than crustaceans. To eat, seahorses use a suction system to pull their food into their mouths, then they swallow their prey whole. They don’t have teeth to break their prey down.