Slender with a long snout and often bright yellow or orange, with fine dark spots. Usually on gorgonians or sponge rather than in weed.
To about 17.5 cm, mature at about 8. Slender, with a long slender snout and a low rounded crown with no spines. The body is usually covered in fine dark dots. Bright yellow, orange or red animals are common, and some are black.
The lined seahorse is the confusion, and the snout and the crown settle it: this one has the longer snout and the smooth crown.
It grips sea fans and seagrass with its tail, and is also found in floating weed and in open water, between the surface and about 60 m. Pairs are monogamous and greet each other daily. The male carries the eggs for about two weeks and the young are about 7 mm at birth.
It is listed as near threatened, and on Appendix II of CITES. FishBase calls it the slender seahorse; longsnout seahorse is the standard Caribbean guide name and both refer to this fish.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.