New Holland seahorse

White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei )

White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei ) is a twelve inch long seahorse that lives on the coast of eastern Australia ( Medium Queensland to New South Wales). It lives in sponges in reefs and seagrass beds, always near the coast, in quiet coves, mostly at depths of up to twenty meters, rarely deeper.

A similar seahorse that was found in the Solomon Islands, the eastern New Guinea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, is held by Kuiter for a separate, undescribed species.

Reproduction

Whites seahorse lives mostly monogamous. The pairs spawn every month at spring tide and full moon. As with all seahorses, the female lays the eggs in a brood pouch on the abdomen of the male. The 60 to 80 hatching boys live as the adult animals, right on the ocean floor and have no pelagic stage. Whites seahorse has already been successfully bred in the aquarium.