The seahorse lays eggs. The seahorse is an incredible creature. Description and photo of a seahorse. The structure of seahorses
The reproduction of seahorses living in tropical seas and inhabiting temperate latitudes is slightly different.
In tropical species, it is quite common to see how males greet females at the first rays of the sun, swimming around their chosen ones and, probably, confirming their readiness for breeding. It is noted that the chest area of the male is painted in a dark color, he bows his head and thus makes circles around the female, touching the bottom with his tail. At the same time, the female does not budge, but spins around her axis after the male. In contrast, male temperate seahorses inflate their pouch, causing the stretched skin to become almost white.
During the breeding season, this ritual of greeting is repeated every morning, after which the pair proceeds to "breakfast", remaining in a relatively limited area. At the same time, partners try not to let each other out of their sight. As the moment of mating approaches, the ritual of greeting lasts all day.
It is very important that the fish mature at the same time. On the day when mating takes place, the ritual becomes more frequent. At some point, the female suddenly raises her head and begins to swim up, and the male follows her. At this stage, the female's ovipositor becomes visible, and the male's pouch opens. The female inserts the ovipositor into the opening of the pouch and lays eggs within a few seconds.
If one of the partners is not ready, then spawning is interrupted and everything starts anew. The number of eggs depends, as a rule, on the size of the male (it can be a small, young male, and an adult specimen) and on the type of fish. Some species produce from 30 to 60 eggs for spawning, others - about 500 or more. Synchronization is important
For mating, it is very important that the sex products of both partners mature at the same time. For long-established pairs, mating occurs without a hitch at any time of the day, while for newly formed pairs, one of the partners must wait for the other and remain “fully ready” for several days.
The moment of hatching of fry is also extremely important for many fish. Seahorses are guided by the times of high and low tides, when the current is strongest and can guarantee a wide distribution of offspring. The tides are regulated by the lunar cycle and are especially intense during the full moon. Therefore, it is not surprising that seahorses breed most actively during certain phases of the moon.
The species that I observed was reproductively active on a full moon, and the birth of fry - four weeks after spawning - again fell on a full moon, and after a few days the males were ready to accept a new clutch. During the breeding season, spawning was repeated every four weeks.
The fry hatched in the father's bag and immediately left it. A lot of fry appear at the same time, which makes the male arch his body forward from time to time in order to push them out. Seahorse fry are left to themselves, because after hatching, their parents stop caring for them.
In some species, fry lead a pelagic way of life and drift with the flow, in others they remain in one place. In close relatives of seapikes, the breeding process is basically the same, however, seahorses are the only members of their family that completely hide their eggs in the skin. The rest use folds of skin, which cover the caviar or attach it to special recesses in the body.
The reason for such care of seahorses for offspring may be that in the thickets of grass where fish live, a large number of invertebrates live, for which caviar serves as food.
In free-swimming pipefish and dragons, such contact is rare, so there is no need for additional protection of offspring. The evolution of role reversal But how did the role reversal occur, as a result of which males of the Syngnathidae family began to bear eggs?
Of course, one can only guess about this, but if you look closely at the fish of related families with the usual breeding process, then a certain conclusion suggests itself about how everything could be.
Like many fishes, among the ancestors of singnatids, spawning probably proceeded as follows: the male and female moved synchronously upwards and simultaneously released eggs and milt. After fertilization, the eggs were carried away by the current, or they settled and stuck, for example, on the stalks of sea grass. If such “sticky” eggs successfully developed and the fry survived, then it can be assumed that stickiness only increased in subsequent generations. And then, probably, individual eggs were glued to the abdomen of the male, which gave them the best chance of survival and protection from predators.
If everything was so, then in the process of evolution, fish improved such “care for offspring”.
Seahorses became the first fish in marine aquariums in Japan and Europe. Many species are not only successfully kept in captivity, but also breed, but this occupation requires a lot of effort and time. In scientific publications, there is not a single line about keeping and breeding skates in aquariums, but reports about this appear in aquarium magazines, which, however, are not widely distributed.
Personally, I wrote an article about aquarium breeding of sea dragons from caviar, that is, about fish that are considered unsuitable for an aquarium. After appearing in a recognized magazine, these fish and their breeding methods very quickly became objects of interest, especially for public aquariums.
live food
Many aquarists breed seahorses, and many public aquariums breed these fish. It mainly takes place in Europe, Japan and Singapore.
Interestingly, many breed the Australian species H. abdominalis, a fairly large pipit that easily adapts to captivity.
I have been able to propagate H. whitei from Sydney and H. abdominalis and H. breviceps from Melbourne. In principle, everything is not so difficult. All that is needed is good sea water, an aquarium, scenery that mimics a natural biotope, and a regular supply of quality fish food.
The latter can be a problem, especially if the hobbyist does not have a good and nutritious frozen food. I had a similar situation, so every second day I had to go to the sea and dive to catch food for my skates.
But through so many efforts, breeding these fish was no problem.
I started in 1980 breeding H. breviceps and H. abdominalis with the goal of photographing the birth of the fry. However, as it soon became clear, this task was not at all an easy one. I still could not get to the right moment and usually found the hatched fry in the morning hours. It took several months before I managed to catch the moment of "delivery", which proceeds very quickly.
"One-Eyed Bandit"
In 1992, I decided to take tropical seahorses more seriously. In Sydney harbor I caught four male and three female H. whitei. One of the males was one-eyed, and another was "pregnant."
I planted them in a one square meter aquarium with a height of 50 cm. The water temperature was just over 20 ° C - absolutely normal for this species. Of all the animals, only two formed a pair and, seven days after the birth of the fry, they began mating, the rest of the “non-pregnant” males began to care for all the females in a row.
The one-eyed male did not lag behind the others and more and more often won the attention of one of the females carrying eggs, but in the subsequent “dance ritual”, describing circles around his chosen one, he suddenly lost sight of her.
As far as I can tell, he didn't have a successful mating. Also, the males tried to expel a friend, thereby getting rid of competitors. They bit their rivals, which was accompanied by a clicking sound. Such behavior prevented the not yet mated skates from "tuning in" to each other: once, for example, the eggs fell past the male's pouch.
Often dark-chested males chased females, but there was no noticeable reaction from the latter. Once a one-eyed male undertook to "besiege" a very large female with a lot of eggs, which, however, did not reciprocate and found another male. True, he showed no interest in her.
The next year, partners often changed each other, and the males continued to see each other only as rivals. For example, one who had just given birth to fry began to besiege another “pregnant” male, who first hid behind “his” female, but was later driven out into a line of furious clicks.
1000 fry per season
At intervals of four weeks, fry appeared on my skates, which I raised in a common aquarium. They grew very quickly, but for this I had to regularly catch food in the ocean that the fry could swallow.
The number of fry was so great that I could not leave all of them in the aquarium, therefore, after growing up the fry, I released them into the ocean, about 50 to 200 individuals per month. At birth, the length of the fry reached 12 mm, and within two weeks they grew twice.
A year later, the health of my "savages" deteriorated, and they stopped spawning. On average, each couple produced 80 fry per month, that is, more than 1000 during the year. Interestingly, the reproductive activity of couples increased, as in nature, during the full moon. Soon, the few fry that I kept for myself began to multiply.
"Eternal love"?
My intensive breeding of seahorses was caused not only by my own desire to observe the mating and birth of fish, but also by numerous requests from other aquarists who were interested in these processes.
Much of what I saw, I could not find an explanation. For example, during a strong storm, all the seahorses gathered at the top of the seagrass stalk, forming a kind of vine. Yes, and the mating itself was fraught with several surprises.
For example, my seahorses turned out to be not so monogamous as described in the literature!
While filming a view of H. breviceps one day, I noticed how one of the females intervened at the moment of mating and transferred her eggs into the male's already open pouch. On another occasion, a male took eggs from two females at once.
And although these observations were made in an aquarium, I am sure that similar things happen in nature. It seems to me that the assumption of monogamy in seahorses has no basis. Observations in natural conditions last a short time and do not give a hint of how the animals will behave in a year.
Mating requires synchronous maturation, and in that sense, pipits are no different from other reef fish, so I can imagine that it is very difficult to find a new partner during the peak of the breeding season.
In such conditions, it is quite advisable for partners to remain together during the entire breeding season.
However, for most species, if not all, caring for offspring is a "seasonal job", and this season depends on climate changes in the corresponding geographical area.
In the tropics, skates start spawning immediately after the rainy season, and in subtropical zones in the spring, when there should be enough food for juveniles in the water. After the breeding season, the animals seem to disperse and go (or better, swim) their own way. Some species migrate to other zones, often to depths. Sometimes at this time I came across reefs on which there were only males or only females, so it seems to me that in nature, seahorses form their pairs only at the beginning of the breeding season.
Seahorses have always amazed people with their unusual appearance. These amazing fish are one of the most ancient inhabitants of the seas and oceans. The first representatives of this species of fish appeared about forty million years ago. They got their name because of the similarity with the horse chess piece.
The structure of seahorses
The fish are small. The largest representative of this species has a body length of 30 centimeters and is considered a giant. Most seahorses have modest sizes 10-12 centimeters.
There are also quite miniature representatives of this species - dwarf fish. Their dimensions are only 13 millimeters. There are individuals smaller than 3 millimeters in size.
As mentioned above, the name of these fish is determined by their appearance. In general, it is not easy to understand that in front of you is a fish, and not an animal, at first glance, because a seahorse bears little resemblance to other inhabitants of the sea.
If in the vast majority of fish the main parts of the body are placed in a straight line located in a horizontal plane, then in seahorses the opposite is true. They have major body parts located in a vertical plane, and the head is completely at right angles to the body.
To date, scientists have described 32 species of these fish. All skates prefer to live in shallow water in warm seas. Since these fish are quite slow-moving, they most of all appreciate coral reefs and coastal bottom, overgrown with algae, because there you can hide from enemies.
Seahorses swim very unusually. Their body is kept vertically in the water during movement. This position is provided by two swim bladders. The first is located along the entire body, and the second in the head area.
Moreover, the second bladder is much lighter than the abdominal one, which provides the fish with vertical position in the water when moving. In the water column, the fish move due to the wave-like movements of the dorsal and pectoral fins. The oscillation frequency of the fins is seventy beats per minute.
Seahorses differ from most fish in that they do not have scales. Their body cover the bone plates, united in belts. Such protection is quite heavy, but this weight does not in the least prevent the fish from floating freely in the water.
In addition, bone plates covered with spines serve as good protection. Their strength is so great that it is very difficult for a person to break even the dried shell of a skate with his hands.
Despite the fact that the head of the seahorse is located at an angle of 90⁰ to the body, the fish can only move it in a vertical plane. In the horizontal plane, head movements are impossible. However, this does not create problems with the review.
The fact is that in this fish the eyes are not connected to each other. The horse can look with his eyes in different directions at the same time, so he is always aware of changes in the environment.
The tail of a seahorse is very unusual. He twisted and very flexible. With its help, fish cling to corals and algae when hiding.
At first glance, it seems that seahorses were not supposed to survive in harsh sea conditions: they slow and defenseless. In fact, the fish flourished until a certain time. In this they were helped by the ability to mimicry.
Evolutionary processes have led to the fact that seahorses are easily merge with the surrounding area. At the same time, they can change the color of their body both completely and partially. This is quite enough so that marine predators could not notice the skates if they hid.
By the way, these marine inhabitants use the ability to change the color of their body in mating games. With the help of "color music" of the body, males attract females.
Most people believe that these fish feed on vegetation. This is an erroneous opinion. In fact, these marine fish, for all their seeming harmlessness and inactivity, are notorious predators. The basis of their diet is plankton. Artemia shrimp and shrimp is their favorite treat.
If you carefully consider the elongated snout of the skate, you can see that it ends with a mouth that acts like a pipette. As soon as the fish notices the prey, it turns its mouth towards it and puffs out its cheeks. In fact, the fish sucks its prey.
It is worth noting that these marine fish are quite voracious. They can hunt for 10 hours straight. During this time they destroy up to 3500 crustaceans. And this is with a stigma length of no more than 1 millimeter.
Skate breeding
Seahorses are monogamous. If a couple is formed, it will not break up until the death of one of the partners, which is not uncommon in the living world. What's really amazing is that birth of offspring by males and not females.
It happens in the following way. During love games, the female, using a special papilla, introduces eggs into the hatching bag of the male. This is where fertilization takes place. Then, males carry offspring for 20, and sometimes 40 days.
After this period, already grown fry are born. The offspring are very similar to their parents, but the body of the fry transparent and colorless.
It is noteworthy that males continue to take care of the offspring for some time after birth, which, however, very quickly becomes independent.
Keeping seahorses in an aquarium
You should know that these fish cannot be kept in a regular aquarium. Skates need to create special conditions for survival:
Do not forget that these fish are quite dirty, so the water in the aquarium must be well filtered..
As you remember, skates in nature love to hide from predators in algae and coral reefs. So, you need to create similar conditions for them in the aquarium. You can use the following elements for this:
- artificial corals.
- Seaweed.
- Artificial grottoes.
- Various stones.
An important requirement is that all elements should not have sharp edges that can damage the skates.
Feeding Requirements
Since in nature these fish feed on crustaceans and shrimp, you will have to buy frozen Mysis shrimp for your pets. Feed the skates in the aquarium should be at least twice a day. Once a week, you can pamper them with live food:
- krill;
- brine shrimp;
- live shrimp.
Seahorses cannot compete for food with aggressive fish. Therefore, the choice of comrades for them is limited. Mainly snails of different types: astrea, turbo, nerite, troshus, etc. You can also add a blue hermit crab to them.
In conclusion, we will give one piece of advice: get all the information you have about these marine life before you start your first flock.
Of the inhabitants of the underwater world, the most unusual, but known to everyone, are seahorses. They belong to the needle family of the needle-shaped order. The fact is that they are fellow fish called sea needles, whose body is retracted, narrow and long. The largest horses are called dragons, and in total there are about 50 species of seahorses.
After analyzing the structure of the seahorse, scientists found that it originated from the sea needle fish 13 million years ago. In appearance, these species are very similar, only the needle is straightened, and the ridge is curved.
Description of the underwater "horse"
At first glance, it seems that the skate is not a fish at all. If you look at the photo of a seahorse, outwardly it resembles a horse in chess pieces. The silhouette of this unusual fish is curved, the abdomen stands out forward, and the back is rounded. The front part of the body of the skate is narrow and curved in such a way that it resembles the neck and head of a horse. The front of the head is elongated, a fish with bulging eyes. The long tail is wrapped in a spiral. The tail is quite flexible, which allows the seahorse to curl around the seaweed.
His body is covered with a wide variety of bumps, thickenings and outgrowths. On their small body there are bony scales that act as armor, they are bright and shimmer. Such a seahorse shell cannot be pierced, it is very strong and protects from marine predators.
Their color is varied, but still monotonous. The color of the skate cover depends on the habitat, they acquire the most similar color for the best imitation of the surface on which they live. So, for example, if a seahorse is among corals, then most likely it is red or bright yellow or purple. Skates that live in the environment of seaweed are brown, yellow or green in color. They also tend to change shade in cases of habitat changes.
Seahorses are small in size, the smallest start at 2 cm, and the largest reach 20 cm.
Habitat
Seahorses live under water, mainly in the tropics and subtropics. This means that they live all over the planet.
Usually fish live among seaweed or corals in shallow waters. Skates are inactive and inactive. Most of the time they are in a position with their tail hooked on a branch of coral or seaweed. Larger fish - sea dragons - cannot attach themselves to aquatic vegetation in this way.
Lifestyle
Skates swim a little, not far from their usual place and slowly, while the body is held vertically - this is one of the main differences from other fish. In an emergency, if spooked, they can swim in a horizontal position. In danger, the pipit quickly clings to corals or algae with its tail and freezes. He hangs upside down motionless. In this position, the skate can be for a very long time.
They also differ from other inhabitants of the seabed in their meek and calm nature. These fish are not aggressive towards others. But still they belong to predatory fish, as they feed on heterogeneous small organisms - plankton. They track down the smallest mollusks, crustaceans, larvae of other fish and other invertebrates with their rotating eyes. When the prey comes close to the seahorse, he sucks it up with his mouth, while greatly puffing his cheeks. This little fish is insatiable, and it can eat about 10 hours a day.
seahorse breeding
It should also be noted that these fish are monogamous. They say about seahorses that these fish live in married couples all their lives. But it still happens when they change their partners. Another of the main features is that male seahorses hatch eggs instead of females. During the mating season, the skates change: in the female, an ovipositor grows in the form of a tube, and in the male, a bag is formed in the tail area with thickened folds. Before fertilization, the partners have a rather long mating dance. These are touching courtship from the male. It was also revealed that the male seahorse, as it were, adapts to the female, while changing the color of the color to match her.
The female lays eggs in the male's pouch. So the male bears eggs for about two weeks. The bag has a small hole through which the fry are born. As for sea dragons, they don't have a bag. They hatch eggs on the very stem of the tail. The number of eggs varies in different types of skates. So, some may have 5 fry, while others may have 1500 eggs.
The birth itself is painful for the male. It happens that the outcome of the birth of fry for a skate is fatal.
Experiment
One day scientists did an experiment. A pair of males and a pair of females were placed in one tank to breed seahorses. After all the traditional courtship, the female laid her eggs to one of the males for further fertilization. The fertilized male was removed to a nearby aquarium. The remaining male tried to care for this female, but all his efforts were in vain. She ignored him and didn't try to put her eggs in his bag. When they nevertheless returned the male back to the aquarium to the female, she again chose him to fertilize her offspring. So he was cleaned again and again after the eggs were planted on him. Despite the fact that the second male continued to care for her, the female seahorse still chose her former male for breeding. The experiment with the fish was done 6 times - everything remained unchanged.
Fry
Out of a thousand newborn fry, only 5% survive and continue labor.
The fry that have just appeared are already completely independent and move away from their parents, choosing a new habitat for themselves.
Skates in the Red Book
Now most species of seahorses are rare, and some are completely disappearing from the seabed. After all, 30 species are listed in the Red Book. And all because the seahorse breeds in small quantities. There is a ban on the fishing of skates. But despite this, a person catches these fish in huge quantities for the sake of cooking. Gourmets consider the fillet of these fish to be truly a delicacy and sell it at fabulous prices. And also skates are used in oriental medicine, various drugs are made from them for diseases of the skin and asthma. Because of the unusual beautiful appearance of the skates, they are dried and sold in large volumes as souvenirs. People deliberately bend the tail of the skate in the opposite direction so that its shape becomes in the form of the letter S. In nature, such fish do not exist.
Water pollution also plays a big role in the extinction of most species of seahorses. Indeed, every year more and more waste and chemicals processed by industries are thrown into the oceans. Environmental accidents and other pollution affect the extinction of corals, algae, which are so necessary for the life of seahorses.
Breeding seahorses at home
Despite the desire of many aquarium owners to have such an interesting fish at home, the horse is very whimsical for breeding at home. It is prone to various diseases and is too picky about feed.
Rare types of skates are very difficult to endure being in an aquarium. They may become stressed or sick. Therefore, when breeding fish at home, it is necessary to create conditions close to the natural habitat. If you carefully approach the reproduction of a seahorse, then it will delight the owner for 3-4 years.
Aquarium
It is necessary to monitor the temperature of the water in the aquarium. The optimum water temperature for them is approximately 23-25 degrees Celsius. For hot days, you need to take care of installing an aquarium split system or turn on a fan nearby. Otherwise, hot air adversely affects these fish, and they simply suffocate.
In order for a seahorse to feel comfortable at home, in an aquarium, it is necessary to monitor the quality of the water in it. Aquarium water should not contain ammonia or phosphates. At the bottom you need to put corals and algae. Various grottoes, jugs, castles and other products made of artificial materials are also welcome.
Fish nutrition
Seahorses eat often and a lot, so they need to provide 4-5 meals a day. Frozen meat of crustaceans, shrimp and other invertebrate mollusks is suitable for food. They also willingly eat moths and daphnia.
Content Features
The seahorse is very demanding in care, so the owners of such royal fish need to be patient and self-possessed. Here are some features to be aware of:
Neighbors in the aquarium
In the neighborhood, you can put calm fish or invertebrates in the aquarium. Fish should be small, slow and cautious. Ideal neighbors for seahorses are blennies and gobies. They will get along well with a snail that does not sting corals and perfectly cleans the aquarium. You can also consider living stones as inhabitants of the "house" of needle-shaped fish. These are small pieces of calcareous rock that have been in warm tropical waters for some time and are inhabited by various living organisms. All new neighbors must be healthy so as not to infect the seahorses.
Parental problems of saltwater pipefish and their relatives
Male seapikes, like male seahorses, are very carefully prepared for the upbringing of future offspring. True, in different types of needles, caviar is hatched in different ways. In some, the skin on the abdomen turns into a kind of sponge, and the eggs laid by the female are completely immersed in this porous tissue. In others, during the breeding season, two longitudinal skin folds appear on the underside of the tail, which cover the eggs on both sides, but do not connect to each other. In still others, the folds grow together, and a real bag is formed, similar to the brood bag of seahorses. In it (as, indeed, if the folds do not connect) there is a large number of blood vessels through which the eggs and fry are supplied with oxygen and harmful metabolic products are excreted. In the inner epithelial layer, which is in close contact with the shell of the eggs, there are special cells responsible for osmoregulation, i.e. maintaining a certain concentration of salts in the contents of the bag. This moment is very important for needle fish, since most of them live in places with variable water salinity (in shallow water, not far from river mouths). Eggs and fry, which are not yet capable of carrying out the processes of osmoregulation themselves, would die if the salt concentration inside the brood chamber changed as sharply as in the external environment.
After the organism of the males of sea needles is rebuilt and they are ready to accept caviar “for education”, mating chores begin. Unlike the "respectable" seahorses, many needlefish are polygamous, i.e. do not adhere to constancy in marriage. Each female lays her eggs in the pouches of several males, so the male often carries eggs from different females. At the same time, in some species, for example, in the seaside needlefish that lives in our Far East, males during spawning for about an hour and a half elegantly look after females, seeking their favor. In other polygamous species, there is a change in behavioral roles - their females are already looking for the favor of the stronger sex. They acquire a bright breeding color (in some cases, various decorations in the form of additional folds and “frills” also develop on their bodies) and actively care for males. And those, in turn, choose which of the females caring for them to prefer and allow her to lay eggs in the prepared “nursery”. Female needlefish do not have any special devices that would allow them to stay close to the male during spawning, so they have to hurry. A well-developed muscle layer in the walls of the ovaries and a large number of nerve fibers form a mechanism that allows the female to quickly inject a portion of eggs into the male's brood pouch and then go in search of the next parent candidate.
It is interesting that male pipefish of some species, like seahorses, may have eggs and larvae at different stages of development in the brood chamber, while others only at one. Probably, these species use different strategies: they fertilize the eggs in portions, as they appear, or first wait until the bag is filled to capacity.
It is interesting that the fertilization of eggs in the closed space of the bag allows the males of needlefish to produce a record low number of germ cells, since each of the spermatozoa in this case is simply “doomed to success”.
The amount of caviar that can fit in a bag is also different for different types of needles. So, the males of the seaside sea needle, with a length of 20 and a thickness of 1 cm, are capable of bearing more than a thousand cubs. At the beginning of pregnancy, this is a thousand eggs with a diameter of about 1 mm, and by the end (about a month later) - a thousand fry 11–12 mm long.
The hatching of tiny needles from the egg membranes begins around the second week after laying and fertilization of the eggs, after which the larvae continue to develop in the cramped space of the paternal pouch. So the male needlefish experiences all the hardships of "pregnancy", including the very significant weight of the growing fry and their constant movement ...
Like seahorses, needlefish are highly valued in oriental medicine and therefore, in many places, they are caught in huge quantities. True, in smaller ones than skates, which are valued higher by healers and are well "go" as mere souvenirs. Most of the seahorse species are already on the pages of the IUCN Red List (see "Biology", No. 42/2002). The position of sea pipers is not yet so critical, but the only way to save these species in the future seems to be their artificial breeding. Attempts at such breeding have already been made in Australia and Vietnam. However, this "industry" is only in its infancy, and there are still many difficulties in the way of turning needlefish into an object of aquaculture. A number of problems arise, in particular, with feeding, as well as with the development of measures to prevent various diseases of these pretty fish. However, scientists do not lose hope and continue to work actively. Perhaps in this way it will be possible to save for the descendants of amazing fish, which are distinguished simply by their unique and selfless care for their offspring.
The seahorse is a small-sized fish that is a member of the Needle family from the order Sticklebacks. Studies have shown that the seahorse is a highly modified needlefish. Today, the seahorse is a fairly rare creature. In this article you will find a description and photo of a seahorse, learn a lot of new and interesting things about this extraordinary creature.
The seahorse looks very unusual and the shape of the body resembles a chess piece of a horse. The seahorse fish has many long bony spines and various leathery outgrowths on its body. Thanks to this body structure, the seahorse looks invisible among the algae and remains inaccessible to predators. The seahorse looks amazing, it has small fins, its eyes rotate independently of each other, and its tail is twisted into a spiral. The seahorse looks diverse, because it can change the color of its scales.
The seahorse looks small, its size depends on the species and varies from 4 to 25 cm. In the water, the seahorse swims vertically, unlike other fish. This is due to the fact that the swim bladder of a seahorse consists of an abdominal and a head part. The head bladder is larger than the abdominal one, which allows the seahorse to maintain an upright position when swimming.
Now the seahorse is becoming less and less common and is on the verge of extinction due to the rapid decline in numbers. There are many reasons for the extinction of the seahorse. The main one is the destruction by man of both the fish itself and its habitats. Off the coast of Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, skates are massively caught. The exotic appearance and bizarre body shape caused people to start making gift souvenirs from them. For beauty, they artificially bend their tail and give the body the shape of the letter "S", but in nature the skates do not look like that.
Another reason that contributes to the decline in the population of seahorses is that they are a delicacy. Gourmets highly appreciate the taste of these fish, especially the eyes and liver of seahorses. In a restaurant, the cost of one serving of such a dish costs $ 800.
In total, there are about 50 species of seahorses, 30 of which are already listed in the Red Book. Fortunately, seahorses are very prolific and can produce over a thousand fry at one time, which keeps the seahorses from disappearing. Seahorses are bred in captivity, but this fish is very whimsical to keep. One of the most extravagant seahorses is the rag-picker seahorse, which you can see in the photo below.
The seahorse lives in tropical and subtropical seas. Seahorse fish lives mainly at shallow depths or near the coast and leads a sedentary lifestyle. The seahorse lives in dense thickets of algae and other marine vegetation. It attaches with its flexible tail to plant stems or corals, remaining almost invisible due to its body covered with various outgrowths and spikes.
The seahorse fish changes body color to blend in completely with its surroundings. Thus, the seahorse successfully disguises itself not only from predators, but also during food production. The seahorse is very bony, so few people want to eat it. The main hunter of the seahorse is the large land crab. The seahorse can travel long distances. To do this, he attaches his tail to the fins of various fish and keeps on them until the "free taxi" swims into the algae thickets.
What do seahorses eat?
Seahorses eat crustaceans and shrimps. Seahorses are very interesting eaters. The tubular stigma, like a pipette, draws prey into the mouth along with water. Seahorses eat quite a lot and hunt almost the whole day, taking short breaks for a couple of hours.
During the day, seahorses eat about 3 thousand planktonic crustaceans. But seahorses eat almost any food, as long as it does not exceed the size of the mouth. The seahorse fish is a hunter. With its flexible tail, the seahorse clings to algae and remains motionless until the prey is in the required proximity to the head. After that, the seahorse sucks in water along with food.
How do seahorses reproduce?
Seahorses reproduce in a rather unusual way, because the male bears their fry. It is not uncommon for seahorses to have monogamous pairs. The mating season of seahorses is an amazing sight. The couple, who are about to enter into a marriage union, are fastened with their tails and dance in the water. In the dance, the skates are pressed against each other, after which the male opens a special pocket in the abdominal region, into which the female throws eggs. In the future, the male bears offspring for a month.
Seahorses breed quite often and bring large offspring. A seahorse gives birth to one thousand or more fry at a time. Fry are born an absolute copy of adults, only very tiny. The babies that are born are left to their own devices. In nature, a seahorse lives for about 4-5 years.
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