---
title: Softcoral Seahorse (Hippocampus debelius)
scientific_name: Hippocampus debelius
common_name: Softcoral Seahorse
taxon: Seahorses
conservation_status: NT - Near Threatened
published: 2024-10-30T14:30:00.173Z
updated: 2026-08-20T16:42:28.169Z
tags: Softcoral Seahorse, Hippocampus debelius, Seahorses, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/seahorses/softcoral-seahorse
---

# Softcoral Seahorse (*Hippocampus debelius*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Seahorses (*Hippocampus*)
- **Size:** up to 2.4 cm
- **Depth:** 15-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Soft corals on deeper reef slopes, northern Red Sea
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Endemic:** Endemic to the Red Sea
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** NT - Near Threatened

## How to recognise it

- fingernail-sized seahorse, far smaller than any other in this sea
- long slender spines on head, trunk and tail, tipped dark brown or black
- short snout with a bulbous tip and a low, angular coronet
- length up to 2.4 cm

A seahorse the size of a fingernail, 2.4 cm (0.9 in), with long slender spines tipped in black and a stubby bulbous snout. It has been found on soft corals on northern Red Sea slopes between 15 and 30 m (49-98 ft), which is most of what anyone can say about it.

Almost everything written about this animal comes from a couple of specimens. It was described in 2009, and it has barely been seen since: divers upload thousands of Red Sea seahorse sightings to the public observation databases every year, and not one of them is this species. Finding one is not a matter of luck so much as of knowing that the smallest thing on the soft coral might be an animal.

The name honors Helmut Debelius, whose field guides put names to a great deal of what divers in this sea point at - and who spent his working life as a policeman before he ever picked up an underwater camera.

If you do find one, the photograph is only half of it. Note the depth, the host coral and the date, and put the record somewhere public. For a species known from this little, that is not a nice-to-have, it is the data.

## Also known as

- **English:** Softcoral Seahorse
- **Portuguese:** Cavalo-marinho-do-coral
- **Czech:** koníček hurghadský
- **CA:** Cavallet de mar pigmeu del Mar Roja

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/seahorses/softcoral-seahorse)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*