There are many tales out there of the mythical freshwater seahorse and for the FW crowd, it’s an extremely exciting myth! At this point it doesn’t look promising, but there is still a chance. In 1916 Hippocampus aimei was described by Roule, but no fisherman in the area of its supposed collection had ever seen [...]
There are many tales out there of the mythical freshwater seahorse and for the FW crowd, it’s an extremely exciting myth! At this point it doesn’t look promising, but there is still a chance.
In 1916 Hippocampus aimei was described by Roule, but no fisherman in the area of its supposed collection had ever seen one. Heiko Bleher did some leg work on this. He was curious because in each H. aimei specimen there was a hole. It turns out that hole was a nail hole; from them being nailed to huts in Laos! Supposedly when Roule visited Laos a fisherman had told him the specimen came from Mekong. After this discovery further investigation was done and it was found to be an already recognized species. H. aimei was revised to a H. barbouri–a marine species from the Indo-Pacific.
Heiko is still investigating another potentially true “Freshwater Seahorse”. In his piece for PFK he writes, “The third seahorse I went after might be the only freshwater one on earth. It lives, or has lived, in Titikaka, the world’s highest navigable freshwater lake. I found the specimen pictured in the Museum Tiwanaku near the lake.”
This specimen / species was discover in 1943 by Polansky. The lone Holotype reised at the Museum Tiwanaku and is labled Hippocampus titicacanesis. There is more than just a single specimen, some say they have seen it.
Heiko goes on to say, “Something strange happened during my last visit. I climbed the highest island in the lake and at nearly 4,600m/15,000’ above sea level met a man claiming to be 120 years old and he recognised my photograph immediately, saying: “Yes, it lives here”.”
Fact or fiction? Who knows, but the myth lives on.
