Long-snouted seahorse

The long-snouted or spiny seahorse is the showier of the two species in Maltese water. It has the same upright, ringed, armoured body and curled tail, but the snout is noticeably long, more than a third of the head length, and the neck and upper back carry a row of fleshy skin filaments that look like a ragged mane. The bony tubercles on the rings are more pronounced, giving a knobbly outline. Colour ranges from greenish yellow and olive through reddish brown to near black, usually sprinkled with small bright white or bluish-white spots. Adults are commonly 10 to 15 cm and can reach about 21 cm.

It favours shallow, sheltered, well-vegetated ground: Posidonia meadows, mixed algae on rubble and quiet rocky inlets, mostly in the top 20 metres. Maltese and Gozitan sightings have come from Mġarr ix-Xini and Ras il-Ħobż, better known to divers as Middle Finger, and from other calm bays with good seagrass, but the animal is genuinely scarce here and finding one is a matter of luck and slow searching.

Long-snouted seahorses hold tiny home ranges, often only around twenty square metres, and pairs tend to stay faithful across a breeding season. The male broods the eggs for about three weeks in a belly pouch and can release several hundred miniature young at once. They are poor swimmers, using a whirring dorsal fin for propulsion and tiny pectoral fins as rudders, so they rely completely on camouflage and on holding tight to their anchor.