The body is encased in a series of bony rings, the snout is relatively short, and the neck arches in a smooth curve without a crown.

[4] The Knysna seahorse occurs mostly in areas with high vegetation cover (at least 75%), and is associated with five dominant aquatic plants: Zostera capensis, Caulerpa filiformis, Codium extricatum, Halophila ovalis and Ruppia cirrhosa.

[6] Genetic data from the mitochondrial control region indicate that, even though each of the three populations of Hippocampus capensis has a unique combination of haplotypes, there is no support for the hypothesis that each represents a distinct subspecies.

[8] Census data from 2002 and 2003 (WWF-SA) indicated that the population sizes of Hippocampus capensis in the Keurbooms and Swartvlei estuaries can at times far exceed that in the much larger Knysna Lagoon.

[10] The Knysna seahorse's smaller size, shorter snout, and reduced coronet are likely adaptations to improve manoeuvrability in the dense seagrass habitats typical of South African estuaries.

This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Knysna seahorse" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL.