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There are 30 to 40 different kinds of seahorses, but only five of these have been seen around the southern African coastline.

These sharks are often confused with puff adder shysharks but can be identified by their broader, more bluntly rounded snouts and depressed heads, and their large, light spots on a dark body.

These shysharks are similar in colour and markings to puffadder snakes, hence their name. 

Beaked sandfish use their hard-pointed snouts to burrow in the sand, where they hide out during the day. At night they come out to hunt.

These large, silvery fish are prominent members of our Kelp Forest exhibit. White steenbras (Lithognathus lithognathus), also sometimes known as pignose grunters, occur in both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. They grow up to a length of about one metre and can weigh up to as much as 30 kilograms, making them popular targets for anglers.

Palmate sea fans are related to soft corals.

Sinuous Sea fans are related to soft corals.

Nippled Sea fans are related to soft corals.

Cape sea urchins live in vast numbers on shallow reefs, where they graze on kelp and algal debris. In 1994, the urchins did a mysterious disappearing act – vanishing almost completely.  In just two years they were virtually extinct in certain areas.

Mantis shrimps are so named because of their similarity to praying mantises. 

Red-chested sea cucumbers live in great numbers on shallow reefs. According to Two Oceans: A Guide to the Marine Life of Southern Africa (Struik Nature, 2010), the “young are brooded in pockets in the skin and can often be seen clinging to the surface of the parent”.

This monogamous fish is found in the Indo-Pacific on outer lagoons and seaward reefs, over hard bottoms, as well as over sand and rubble.