[4] The discovery of the species, which inhabits the waters of Sodwana Bay in South Africa, was revealed by an international team of researchers in May 2020.

[5] The team that made this discovery arrived in South Africa to look for the pygmy pipehorse and unintentionally found this new species.

The Hippocampus nalu's highly different spine morphology along the superior trunk ridge also differentiates the species from its fellow pygmy seahorse.

[7] Being a pygmy seahorse, H. nalu is very small, with juveniles being ~10 mm long and adults growing up to a length of 2 centimetres.

[2][8] This species is currently only known to occur in shallow coastal waters, at depths between 12 and 17 meters that contain flat sandstone-based coral reefs and short algal turfs.