Seahorse – Fist Fact

Seahorses are a genus (Hippocampus) of fish belonging to the family Syngnathidae that includes leafy sea dragons and pipefish. Over 30 species of seahorses are found in mainly shallow temperate and tropical waters around the world. Their natural habitat are usually in sheltered areas with mangroves, coral reefs or grass beds.

Seahorses form territories, with the males occupying about one square meter area of their habitat whereas the females can occupy a range of up to a hundred times of the area the males occupy.  These fish are well camouflaged by the greyish, brownish patterns that blends in well to their habitat background. However, they do turn bright colours during their social moments or when they are in unusual surroundings.

Seahorses do not have scales and a thin skin layer is stretched over a series of their bony plates arranged in rings throughout their body. Each species of the seahorses has a distinct number of rings and each of them has a distinct coronet on their head, like a human fingerprint. They swim upright but very poorly by fluttering their dorsal fin for propelling through the water, and pectoral fins for steering. Unlike fish, seahorses have no caudal fin. Their poor swimming characteristics find them resting in beds of sea grass or coral reefs, and with their prehensile tails wound around a stationary object most of the time. Seahorses have long snouts for sucking up food. Their eyes move independently of each other like a chameleon.

Seahorses afre finicky on their diet which comprised mainly tiny fish, small shrimp, and planktons. In the aquaria, you may feed them with frozen or live brine shrimps and mysis shrimps. Target feeding is recommended by dropping food close to their location.  

Male seahorses are have a brood pouch on their ventral side. The courting starts with several days’ affair between a pair when they discover mutual interest at the beginning of the the breeding season. Courtship is evident when both change colours, swimming side by side along each other, holding tails or doing some of their “pre-dawn dance”. When mating starts, the male pumps water through the egg pouch on his trunk which expands and cleaves open to display an appealing emptiness, and the female seahorse deposits their hundreds to thousands of eggs into the male’s pouch where the eggs are fertilized internally. The eggs are carried around by the male until they hatch and become fully-developed, miniature seahorses in the water. The male seahorse pregnancies last usually for two to three weeks.  The egg pouch provides oxygen and act as a controlled environment incubator.  The salinity of the water is regulated in the pouch for proper hatching.  Throughout the incubation period, his female mate usually visits him daily by swimming over for approximately 5 minutes of interaction. During this process, the pair changes colour and wheel around the sea grass fronds, and finally promenade by holding each other’s tails.

The male undergoes muscular contractions to expel the fry from his pouch when they are ready, usually happens in the night. Seahorses do not care for their young once they are born, and the fry are vulnerable from the predators or strong ocean current. Survival rates are low and that the statistics are that less than five fry of every 1,000 borns manage to survive to adulthood in the wild.

In captivity, seahorses should fare well if kept in a species aquarium to themselves, or with other compatible tank-mates. As seahorses are slow feeders, avoid putting them in an aquarium with fast and aggressive feeders.  The goby family of fish, shrimps and other bottom feeding creatures makes good tank-mates. In particular, avoid putting them together with eels, triggerfish, octopus, tangs, squid, and sea anemones.

Ideal water parameters would have a pH range between 8.0 to 8.3 and SG (specific gravity) between 1.021 to 1.024. Good water care with the aid of an efficient bio-filter is import to keep the ammonia and nitrite level nil.  Seahorses are not fussy about space and aquarium need not be too large.

A carefully setup seahorse aquarium with a stable and high quality environment will provide many hours of fascination.

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