Specifications table

Subject area	Ecology
More specific subject area	Dietary and foraging ecology
Type of data	Tables
How data was acquired	Gut contents of seahorses were obtained by flushing method, while sediments used for the study of benthic fauna were manually sampled by three replicate cores. Organisms were counted and classified at the major taxa level of taxonomic discrimination using a stereomicroscope (after extraction from sediments and algal fragments in case of benthic organisms). Statistical analyses were performed using PRIMER v6 + software.
Data format	Raw and analyzed
Experimental factors	Gut contents of 83 individuals of Hippocampus guttulatus and samples of benthic fauna from three different habitats at Taranto Mar Piccolo were analyzed.
Experimental features	Taxonomical identification of the ingested prey from gut contents and potential prey from benthic faunal samples to determine diet of H. guttulatus and investigate the differences in the diet composition respect to the prey availability in different habitats.
Data source location	Taranto Mar Piccolo, Southern Italy
Data accessibility	Data are included in this article
Related research article	F. Ape, G. Corriero, S. Mirto, C. Pierri, T. Lazic, M. Gristina. Trophic flexibility and prey selection of the wild long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus Cuvier, 1829 in three coastal habitats. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., 224, 2019, 1–10.