Syngnathidae

Korean seahorse

Hippocampus haema

Eleven Point Four Centimeters Seahorse of Northwest Pacific

• Temperate
• Regional distribution
• Marine fish
• Pacific Ocean
• East Asia
• Other
• Small
• Temperate fish

Hippocampus haema, the Korean seahorse, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae native to the northern Pacific Ocean (Korea Strait, Sea of Japan, northeastern coast of Honshu), and it usually lives in Sargassum and weeds on shallow soft bottom habitats from 0 to 18 m depth. The Korean seahorse is the most common seahorse in Korean waters so that the scientific name 'haema' is named from 'seahorse' in Korean. The Japanese name 'Himetatsu' is derived from its smaller shape such as body and coronet rather than the shape of a sister species, crowned seahorse (Hippocampus coronatus).