The seahorse or hippocampus is an animal that draws a lot of attention to the naked eye. The seahorse is a species that although we all know of its existence, no one knows exactly its special characteristics.
That’s why we are going to offer a compilation of the most relevant characteristics of seahorses, since although we all know the basics; there are characteristics that we are sure you are unaware of, so let’s begin.
What do you need for the seahorse?
- Read carefully and carefully if you want to get to know seahorses in depth.
- Observation capacity to observe seahorses.
Seahorse Instructions
- Family: The seahorse belongs to the fish family, specifically to the syngnathid family, among which are apart from the seahorse, the pipefish and the water dragon among others. Like all fish they breathe through gills and live in water, the seahorse specifically in seawater and being a vertebrate it has a backbone that supports the body.
- Reproduction: Like most animals of its kind, it has sexual reproduction with external fertilization and oviparous gestation, with the special characteristic that the male is the one that lays the eggs and they are the ones that have an incubator bag for these eggs to hatch. Develop characteristics that make it unique within the animal kingdom. The female uses her ovipositor to fertilize these eggs. First, she places them in the male’s incubator bag. Once there, she fertilizes them and once inside the bag they gestate and hatch in approximately 40 days of gestation. This incubator bag also serves to differentiate one sex from another Seahorses have a low life expectancy, so that is why about 1000 children are born in each litter, since they use the reproductive strategy of R, which consists of having many children so that one of them reaches adulthood despite high infant mortality.
- Body: Its body is ringed, these rings act as an exoskeleton for the seahorse, its way of swimming is unique, and to swim they use their dorsal fin to swim forward and their pectoral fin to swim vertically. Its famous tail is used to cling to plants and corals in the water since it can bend inwards but never backwards. The seahorse also has a characteristic of chameleons, mimicry, used to blend in with its surroundings and survive in the ocean.
- Relationship with the environment and nutrition: The seahorse eats larvae and small crustaceans, they do not have a stomach or teeth, for this reason their digestion process is fast since they can only eat small species and therefore they must eat constantly. Your sense of smell is located below the eye area and your sense of hearing is used to receive external vibrations. As for communication with those of the same species, they do so by moving their heads rapidlyand in doing so a kind of sound is caused with their skull. To survive, the seahorse uses the camouflage technique trying to go unnoticed on the reef. In this article we show you other experts in camouflage, including the skills of the seahorse.
Tips for the seahorse
- Its name: The seahorse has nothing to do evolutionarily with the conventional horse of the earth, this name is only due to the similarity of the head of the seahorse with the head of the conventional horse, but they really are species that have nothing what to see between them.
- Swimming: The seahorse is an animal that swims quite poorly, because the fins it has are very small, they can become exhausted when they swim, in addition to doing so very slowly, due to this they must properly use their mimicry ability they cannot effectively flee from predators.
- Myths: In addition to the name, there are certain myths about the seahorse that are false. In the first place, a very popular myth is that seahorses stay with their partner for life, this is completely false. It should also be known that captive seahorses have more stress than wild seahorses, so even if they are not exposed to predators, their life expectancy drops significantly.
- Aquariums: If you liked our article, we advise you not to be satisfied, visit an aquarium and in addition to being able to know even more about this animal, you will be able to admire its beauty live and direct. In addition to that you will be able to see other very beautiful marine animals so it is a highly recommended experience.
