Tuesday 21 May
In the News: First crane egg in the western UK in four centuries
Crowned seahorse (Hippocampus coronatus)
DATADEFICIENT
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?
Find out here.Crowned seahorse fact file
- Description
- Biology
- Range
- Habitat
- Status
- Threats
- Conservation
- Find out more
- Glossary
- References
- Print factsheet
Crowned seahorse description
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Actinopterygii |
| Order | Gasterosteiformes |
| Family | Syngnathidae |
| Genus | Hippocampus (1) |
This Japanese seahorse earns its common name for the tall, backward-curving crown on top of its head, which is coupled with rather unusual, irregular spines projecting out of the body (4). The skin is yellowish, marbled with dark brown, and black along the back. Like other seahorses, the head is held at right angles to the body, the eyes can move independently of each other, and the tail is prehensile. Instead of having scales, as most other fish do, seahorses have a layer of skin stretched over bony plates that are visible as rings passing around the trunk. Swimming is powered by the rapidly oscillating dorsal fin, and they steer using the fins on either side of the body (the pectoral fins) (2).
- Size
- Maximum height: 12.7 cm (2)
More »
Top
Related species
Crowned seahorse biology
Unusually, it is the male, and not the female, that becomes pregnant in seahorses (6). The breeding season of this species is June to July and there are reports that broods contain ‘several hundred’ young, although this may refer to H. sindonis, a similar species that has only recently been distinguished as a separate species (1) (2). Young look like miniature adult seahorses, are independent from birth, and receive no further parental care (6).
TopCrowned seahorse range
Endemic to Japanese waters in the northwest Pacific (5).
More »
Top
Species with a similar range
Crowned seahorse habitat
Found among
More »
Top
Species found in a similar habitat
Crowned seahorse status
Classified as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List 2006 (1), and listed on Appendix II of CITES (3).
Crowned seahorse threats
Very little is known about the total number of crowned seahorses, its population trends, or major threats. It has therefore been classified as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List 2006. Trade surveys conducted by Project Seahorse between 2000 and 2001 indicate that trade in this species is relatively small. Furthermore, the crowned seahorse is not targeted by any fishery in Japanese waters, although it may be caught incidentally as bycatch (1).
TopCrowned seahorse conservation
All seahorses (Hippocampus spp.) are listed on Appendix II of CITES, effective as of May 2004, limiting and regulating their international trade (2). With such limited data available on this fascinating animal, there is an urgent need for further research to be conducted on its biology, ecology, habitat, abundance and distribution, before its status can be properly assessed and conservation measures implemented accordingly (1).
|
View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. |
Find out more
For more information on the crowned seahorse and other seahorses see:
Project Seahorse:
http://seahorse.fisheries.ubc.ca/index.html
Authentication
Authenticated (19/12/2006) by Sara Lourie, Project Seahorse/Redpath Museum, McGill University.
http://seahorse.fisheries.ubc.ca/index.html
Glossary
- Bycatch
- In the fishing industry, the part of the catch made up of non-target species.
- Dorsal fin
- The unpaired fin found on the back of the body of fish.
- Endemic
- A species or taxonomic group that is only found in one particular country or geographic area.
- Prehensile
- Capable of grasping.
- Sargassum
- Any of the brown algae that make up the genus Sargassum.
References
- IUCN Red List (October, 2006)
http://www.iucnredlist.org - Lourie, S.A., Foster, S.J., Cooper, E.W.T. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2004) A Guide to the Identification of Seahorses - Project Seahorse and TRAFFIC North America. University of British Columbia and World Wildlife Fund, Washington D.C..
- CITES (December, 2006)
http://www.cites.org - Fish to the Nth (December, 2006)
http://www.fishtothenth.com/hcoronatus.html - FishBase (December, 2006)
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=23141 - Project Seahorse (December, 2006)
http://seahorse.fisheries.ubc.ca/biology5.html
More »Related species
Sign up to our newsletter
Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.
Get involved
ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!
X
Close
Close
Image credit
Crowned seahorse
© Taketomo Shiratori / www.photoshot.com
NHPA/Photoshot Holdings Ltd
29-31 Saffron Hill
London
EC1N 8SW
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7421 6003
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7421 6006
sales@photoshot.com
http://www.photoshot.com
X
Close
Close
Link to this photo
Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.
Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.
Read more about
X
Close
Close
MyARKive
MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.
X
Close
Close
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
- view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
- download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
- teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.
End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material 
Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.
Creative commons material
Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.
Any other use
Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.
Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.