Sea Horses. The most interesting things about seahorses Signs characteristic of a seahorse

The Black Sea seahorse is an indigenous inhabitant of the Black Sea, having formed into a separate species about 20 million years ago. Nature rewarded him with an original appearance, and in the course of evolution, unique capabilities and skills appeared that were inaccessible to other inhabitants. underwater world. Human actions have brought the pipits to the brink of extinction, forcing biologists to include them in the Red Book.

Description

In biological encyclopedias, the Black Sea seahorse is called Hippocampus guttulatus (long-snouted seahorse) and belongs to the class of ray-finned fish. His top part similar to a chess “horse”, and the elongated tubular mouth-pump (a third of the length of the head) only enhances the similarity. The head is located perpendicular to the body and can move up/down, which other types of fish are not able to do. The eyes work independently of each other, and the viewing angle reaches 300 degrees.

Body seahorse elongated in length and slightly flattened laterally and is constantly in a vertical position due to a double air bubble, the upper section of which is smaller than the lower one. It ends with a long and flexible tail without a fin blade, capable of curling into a ring. Their skates cling to algae, hiding from danger or ambushing prey.

Sea Horse
Photo: http://zapcity.fr

For protective purposes, the body of the skate is covered with horny plates, spines of various lengths and growths, which serve as an additional means of camouflage in thickets of algae. The shell is highly durable and does not lose its properties even after drying. Having a brownish-yellow color with small white dots, they are able to change color, adapting to their surroundings.

Seahorses swim vertically and not very quickly, making up to 70 “swings” per second with their dorsal fin, helping themselves oscillatory movements body and tail. Under the head there are two more small fins, corresponding in their functions to the pectoral fins in fish of “standard” shapes.

Male seahorses are usually larger and grow up to 20-21 centimeters, females up to 17-18. The usual life expectancy does not exceed 4-5 years.

Habitats and food

The seahorse lives in the waters of the Black, Azov and Mediterranean seas, off the eastern shores Atlantic Ocean, from the Netherlands to the African coast. It chooses places with a depth of up to 20 meters, with the obligatory presence of underwater vegetation, where it spends about 90% of its life, setting up ambushes and hiding from predators. Prefers waters without strong currents.

They mostly live in small groups of 3-5 individuals, almost never gathering in large quantities. But they can also create pairs for life, especially when living in artificial aquarium conditions. Moreover, if one of the partners dies, the second one grieves very much, which is noticeable by a change in behavior, and may also die.

“Seed pair” of seahorses
Photo: https://c2.staticflickr.com

The seahorse feeds using a mouth-pump, drawing in food along with water at great speed, from distances of up to 4 centimeters. Its food consists of small benthic inhabitants of the sea, crustaceans, fish fry, and plankton, which it catches from ambush in algae. It is worth noting the appetite of animals that “lunch” at least 5 times a day and are able to do this for up to 10 hours a day.

Interesting fact: seahorses bear and give birth to males, not females.

Spawning

Unlike most animals, males are responsible for the reproduction of seahorses, who bear and “feed” the eggs and give birth to offspring. At the same time, females carefully choose their future father, and their mating dances can last 3 days. At this time, the pipits swim into shallow water (up to 4 meters), swim together, periodically rising to the surface, exchange songs of clicking sounds and even “kiss”, touching with their pumping mouths.

Seahorse in the waters of the Black Sea
Photo: wikimedia.org

When foreplay ends, the female lays eggs (depending on size, from 10 to 650 pieces). For this purpose, in the lower part of the male’s abdominal cavity there is an egg sac-pocket, pierced circulatory system to supply oxygen to developing larvae. After filling (sometimes the pipit accepts eggs from several females), its seam closes and closes, and the “father” carries out internal fertilization of the eggs.

Gestation of eggs occurs for about 4-5 weeks. All this time, the seahorse is in shallow water, without leaving a square meter of its “personal” area, where it hunts and hides. This is his territory, from where even “frivolous” females leave in order to provide the “nursing father” with a sufficient amount of food.

After the formation of the fry, which are completely ready for independent life, difficult labor begins - the male can squirm for up to 2 days, trying to open the birth sac. Sometimes it ends with his death. If everything went well, the small skates crawl out of the pocket and rise to the surface for a breath of air (to fill the air bladder), then return to the “dad”. For some time they live next to him, hiding in a “bag” in case of danger, but soon they swim away and never return.

Use of seahorses

Seahorses are used by humans in several areas, one of which is aesthetic. These original look Vacationers willingly buy animals for souvenirs Black Sea coast, or they are trying to “domesticate” them by planting them in an aquarium. In the second case, death is also almost inevitable, since the skates do not tolerate changes well, especially if their “half” remains in the sea.

Sea Horse

Another area in which seahorses are widely used is traditional medicine, especially among the peoples of Asia. According to traditional healers, drugs from animals help in the treatment of baldness, skin diseases, atherosclerosis, cough and asthma. The drugs are especially popular in the treatment of impotence and sexual dysfunctions. The ability to bind harmful carcinogens and toxic substances in the human body is also noted, which helps in the prevention of cancer.

The very appearance of these fish evokes pleasant associations with childhood, toys and fairy tales.

The horse swims in an upright position and tilts its head so gracefully that, looking at it, it is impossible not to compare it with some small magical horse.

It is covered not with scales, but with bone plates. However, in his shell he is so light and fast that he literally floats in the water, and his body shimmers with all colors - from orange to dove-blue, from lemon yellow to fiery red. Judging by the brightness of its colors, this fish can be compared with tropical birds.

Seahorses inhabit coastal waters tropical and subtropical seas. But they are also found in the North Sea, for example, off the southern coast of England. They choose quieter places; rapid current I like too.

Among them there are dwarfs the size of a little finger, and there are giants about thirty centimeters. The smallest species, Hippocampus zosterae (dwarf seahorse), is found in the Gulf of Mexico. Its length does not exceed four centimeters, and the body is very hardy.

In Black and Mediterranean seas You can find the long-faced, spotted Hippocampus guttulatus, whose length reaches 12-18 centimeters. The most famous are representatives of the species Hippocampus kuda, which lives off the coast of Indonesia. Seahorses of this species (their length is 14 centimeters) are brightly and variegatedly colored, some with speckles, others with stripes. The largest seahorses are found near Australia.

Whether they are dwarfs or giants, seahorses look alike like brothers: a trusting look, capricious lips and an elongated “horse” muzzle. Their tail is curved towards the belly, and their head is decorated with horns. It is impossible to confuse these graceful and colorful fish, which look like jewelry or toys, with any of their inhabitants. water element.

How does pregnancy proceed in males?

Even now, zoologists find it difficult to say how many species of seahorses there are. Possibly 30-32 species, although this figure is subject to change. The fact is that seahorses are difficult to classify. Their appearance is too changeable. And they know how to hide in such a way that a needle thrown into a haystack would be jealous.

When Amanda Vincent of Montreal's McGill University began studying seahorses in the late 1980s, she was frustrated: "At first I couldn't even notice the little ones." Masters of mimicry, in a moment of danger they change their color, repeating the color of surrounding objects. Therefore, they are easily mistaken for algae. Many seahorses, like gutta-percha dolls, can even change their body shape. They develop small growths and nodules. Some seahorses can be difficult to distinguish from corals.

This plasticity, this “color music” of the body helps them not only fool their enemies, but also seduce their partners. German zoologist Ruediger Verhasselt shares his observations: “I had a pink-red male in my aquarium. I placed a bright yellow female with red speckles next to him. The male began to look after the new fish and after a few days it turned the same color as it - even red specks appeared.”

To watch enthusiastic pantomimes and colorful confessions, you need to go underwater early in the morning. Only in the pre-dawn twilight (however, sometimes in the sunset hours) seahorses wander in pairs through the underwater thickets of algae, this sea jungle. In their confessions, they follow a funny etiquette: they nod their heads, greeting their friend, while clinging to neighboring plants with their tails. Sometimes they freeze when they come together in a “kiss.” Or they whirl around in a stormy love dance, and the males constantly inflate their bellies.

The date is over - and the fish swim away to the sides. Adju! Until next time! Seahorses usually live in monogamous pairs, loving each other to the death, which they often have in the form of nets. After the death of a partner, his half misses him, but after a few days or weeks he finds a partner again. Seahorses housed in an aquarium are particularly affected by the loss of a partner. And it happens that they die one after another, unable to bear the grief.

What is the secret of such affection? Kindred spirits? Here's how biologists explain it: By regularly walking and petting each other, seahorses synchronize their biological clocks. This helps them choose the most appropriate moment for procreation. Then their meeting drags on for several hours, or even days. They glow with excitement and spin in a dance in which, as we remember, the males inflate their bellies. It turns out that the male has a wide fold on his stomach where the female lays her eggs.

Surprisingly, in seahorses the offspring is carried by the male, having previously fertilized the eggs in the abdominal pouch.

But such behavior is not as exotic as it might seem. There are also other species of fish, for example, cichlids, in which the eggs are hatched by males. But only in seahorses do we deal with a process similar to pregnancy. The tissue on the inside of the male's brood pouch thickens, as in the uterus of mammals. This tissue becomes a kind of placenta; it connects the father's body with the embryos and nourishes them. This process is controlled by the hormone prolactin, which stimulates lactation in humans - the formation of mother's milk.

With the onset of pregnancy, walks through underwater forests stop. The male stays in an area of about one square meter. In order not to compete with him in obtaining food, the female delicately swims to the side.

After a month and a half, “birth” occurs. The seahorse presses against the seaweed stalk and inflates its belly again. Sometimes a whole day passes before the first fry slips out of the bag and into the wild. Then the young will begin to emerge in pairs, faster and faster, and soon the bag will expand so much that dozens of fry will swim out of it at the same time. Number of newborns different types miscellaneous: some seahorses hatch up to 1600 babies, while others give birth to only two fry.

Sometimes the “birth” is so difficult that the males die from exhaustion. In addition, if for some reason the embryos die, then the male who carried them will also die.

Evolution cannot explain the origin of the seahorse's reproductive functions. The whole process of childbearing is too “unorthodox”. Indeed, the structure of the seahorse appears to be a mystery if you try to explain it as a result of evolution. As one leading expert said several years ago: “In terms of evolution, the seahorse is in the same category as the platypus. Because he is a mystery that confuses and destroys all theories trying to explain the origin of this fish! Recognize the Divine Creator, and everything will be explained.”

What do seahorses do if they're not flirting or expecting offspring? One thing is certain: they do not shine with success in swimming, which is not surprising given their constitution. They have; only three small fins: the dorsal one helps to swim forward, and two gill fins maintain vertical balance and serve as a rudder. In a moment of danger, seahorses can briefly speed up their movement, flapping their fins up to 35 times per second (some scientists even call the number “70”). They are much better at vertical maneuvers. By changing the volume of the swim bladder, these fish move up and down in a spiral.

However, most of the time the seahorse hangs motionless in the water, its tail hooked on algae, coral, or even the neck of a relative. It looks like he's ready to hang around all day. However, despite his apparent laziness, he manages to catch a lot of prey - tiny crustaceans and fry. Only recently was it possible to observe how this happens.

The seahorse does not rush after prey, but waits until it swims to it. Then he draws in water, swallowing the careless small fry. Everything happens so quickly that the naked eye cannot notice it. However, scuba diving enthusiasts say that when approaching a seahorse, you sometimes hear the sound of smacking. The appetite of this fish is amazing: as soon as it is born, the seahorse manages to swallow about four thousand miniature shrimp in the first ten hours of life.

In total, he is destined to live, if he’s lucky, four to five years. Enough time to leave behind millions of descendants. It seems that with such numbers, seahorses are assured of prosperity. However, it is not. Out of a thousand fry, on average, only two survive. All the rest themselves fall into someone's mouth. However, in this whirlwind of births and deaths, seahorses have been staying afloat for forty million years. Only human intervention can destroy this species.

According to the World Fund wildlife, the number of seahorses is rapidly declining. Thirty species of these fish are included in the Red Book, that is, almost all species known to science. Ecology is primarily to blame for this. The world's oceans are turning into a global dump. Its inhabitants are degenerating and dying out.

Half a century ago, the Chesapeake Bay was a narrow, long bay off the coast American states Maryland and Virginia (its length reaches 270 kilometers) were considered a real paradise for seahorses. Now you can hardly find them there. Alison Scarratt, director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, estimates that ninety percent of the bay's algae have died in the past half century, due to water pollution. But there were algae natural environment seahorse habitat.

Another reason for the decline is the massive catching of seahorses off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. According to Amanda Vincent, at least 26 million of these fish are caught every year. A small part of them then end up in aquariums, and the majority die. For example, these cute fish are dried and used to make souvenirs - brooches, key rings, belt buckles. By the way, for the sake of beauty, their tail is bent back, giving the body the shape of the letter S.

However, most of the seahorses caught - about twenty million, according to the World Wildlife Fund - end up with pharmacists in China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. The largest transshipment point for the sale of this “medical raw material” is Hong Kong. From here it is sold to more than thirty countries, including India and Australia. Here, a kilogram of seahorses costs about $1,300.

From these dried fish, crushed and mixed with other substances, for example with tree bark, drugs are prepared that are as popular in Japan, Korea, and China as here - aspirin or analgin. They help with asthma, cough, headaches and especially with impotence. IN Lately this Far Eastern “Viagra” has become popular in Europe.

However, even ancient authors knew that medicines could be prepared from seahorses. Thus, Pliny the Elder (24-79) wrote that in case of hair loss, one should use an ointment prepared from a mixture of dried seahorses, marjoram oil, resin and lard. In 1754, the English Gentlemen's Magazine advised nursing mothers to take seahorse extract "for the better flow of milk." Certainly, old recipes may make you smile, but it’s happening now World organization health research " healing properties seahorse."

Meanwhile, Amanda Vincent and a number of biologists advocate a complete ban on the uncontrolled harvesting and trade of seahorses, trying to put an end to predatory fishing, as they managed to do with whaling. The situation is that in Asia, seahorses are caught mainly by poachers. To put an end to this, the researcher created the Project Seahorse organization back in 1986, which is trying to protect seahorses in Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines, as well as establish a civilized trade in them. Things are especially successful on the Philippine island of Handayan.

Residents of the local village of Handumon have been harvesting seahorses for centuries. However, in just ten years, from 1985 to 1995, their catches decreased by almost 70 percent. Therefore, the seahorse rescue program proposed by Amanda Vincent was perhaps the only hope for fishermen.

To begin with, it was decided to create a protected area with total area thirty-three hectares where fishing was completely prohibited. There, all the seahorses were counted and even numbered, putting a collar on them. From time to time, divers looked into this water area and checked whether the “lazy couch potatoes”, seahorses, had swum away from here.

We agreed that outside protected area will not catch males with full brood pouches. If they were caught in the net, they were thrown back into the sea. In addition, ecologists tried to replant mangroves and underwater algae forests - the natural shelters of these fish.

In some zoos - in Stuttgart, Berlin, Basel, as well as in the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the California Aquarium, breeding of these fish is successful. Perhaps they can be saved.

In the seas washing Russia, only two species of seahorses are found (although the species diversity of seahorses is great, only different seas There are 32 species of seahorses in the world). These are the Black Sea seahorse and the Japanese seahorse. The first one lives in Black and Seas of Azov, and the second is in Japanese.

“Our” seahorses are small and do not have luxurious long outgrowths all over their bodies, like, for example, the raghorse that lives in warm seas and masquerading as thickets of Sargassum algae. Their shell modestly performs a protective function: it is very strong and is usually colored to match the background color.

Like the multitude of creatures that fill the seas, skies and land, the seahorse has no link that can connect it with any other form of life. Like all major types of living creatures, the complex seahorse was created suddenly, as the book of Genesis tells us.

It's hard to believe, but in ancient times seahorses were feared and considered chthonic creatures. The Chinese are confident that skates are coming back male strength, and Europeans decorate their aquariums with them.

Underwater chameleons

Unlike other inhabitants of the oceans and seas, seahorses swim upright and in pairs, often with their tails tied. At the same time, like chameleons, they avoid a few enemies, imitating the color of underwater plants.

The latter property is due to the fact that seahorses are incompetent swimmers. They have a small fin on their back that moves up to 35 times per second, and pectoral fins, which would be more correctly called rudders. And the dwarf seahorse is generally recognized as the slowest fish in the world. It moves at a speed of 1.5 meters per hour.

Good eaters

Seahorses have neither teeth nor a stomach. Their digestive system resembles a ramjet engine, so they have to eat constantly so as not to die of hunger. As a rule, they cling to algae with their tenacious tails and suck up water from a distance of up to three centimeters, and at the same time simple food. Every day they consume three thousand or more brine shrimp (planktonic organisms). They also love tiny fish, carefully watching them. Interestingly, both eyes of skates can look at different sides, studying the environment.

A close relative is the needlefish

However, there are not so many people who want to feast on the seahorses themselves, except perhaps penguins, crabs, tuna, stingrays and some very hungry predators. The thing is that seahorses are very poorly digested due to excessive bonyness. Their numerous long spines and ribbon-like leathery outgrowths are also unpleasant to absorb. As genetic studies show, the ancestors of seahorses are the same needle-like progenitor from which the needle fish appeared. The split into two species occurred approximately 23 million years ago.

Non-stress resistant

The greatest danger for seahorses comes from strong rolling motion, which leads to exhaustion and complete loss of strength. They like it calm and clear water. Interestingly, these fish are very susceptible to stress. In an unusual environment, they die quickly enough, even if they have food. This is why they do not take root well in aquariums. Interestingly, seahorses are monogamous, are faithful partners and are not separated from each other throughout their lives. After the death of one of them, the widow or widower grieves greatly, which can even cause death.

The choice is up to the lady

The role of the male in choosing his mate is secondary. The female herself decides who should mate with her. Having seen a suitable candidate for a wife, she tests his passion for three days. She dances with him and rises to the surface of the water, only to sink to the bottom again. In the literature, this phenomenon is described as a “predawn dance.” This happens many times.

Future partners exchange clicking signals among themselves. The male's task is to keep up with his dancing girlfriend. If he fails, the bride looks for another groom. It is believed that this is how the female tests the strength of the male. If the choice is made, then the seahorses begin mating.

Pregnant dad

Seahorses are faithful partners and are never separated from each other throughout their lives. At the same time, the male himself bears his cubs, being the only creature on earth in which the so-called male pregnancy occurs.

The mating dance lasts eight hours and is accompanied by a change in color. During the mating process, the female transfers the eggs to her partner in the brood pouch on her abdomen. It is there that miniature seahorses are formed within 40-50 days. From 5 to 1500 fry can be born.

By the way, some scientists claim that the expression pregnant male is not true. The fact is that the responsibility of the “sea horse” is to protect the fertilized eggs. During this period, the female visits the male once a day for 6 minutes of “morning greeting”, and then swims away until the next morning. In captivity, this routine may be disrupted.

For good health

Before mature age Only one in a hundred fry survive. In fact, this figure is one of the highest for fish. Recently, the greatest danger to seahorses has been humans; in particular, about 20 million of these fish are caught annually by the Chinese for traditional medicine, primarily for the treatment of impotence.

It is also claimed that a decoction of them helps overcome nocturnal enuresis. Seahorses sell for an average of $600 to $3,000 per kilogram. There are cases when these dried fish were exchanged for gold by weight one to one. In addition to the Chinese, Indonesians and Filipinos also catch seahorses. As a result, almost all seahorse species are listed in the Red Book. And a species like the Paradoxical Seahorse is considered extinct.

Every aquatic animal is of great interest because of its unusualness due to its habitat itself, which is not the same as that of humans. Let's learn more about one of the types of sea animals - the seahorse.

Facts about seahorses

1. Mythological fact. Myself ancient roman god Neptune, traveling the seas around his domain (as those who believed in him believed), harnessed seahorses to his chariot. The similarity of these fish of the needle family with horses has been noticed in ancient times. However, the similarity is only external, and the size of seahorses is much smaller than that of land horses - a maximum of thirty centimeters.

2. Seahorses live in the tropics, sometimes subtropics. Contrary to the name, some of them are quite adapted to fresh water bodies.

3. The main food of skates are shrimps and crustaceans. The mouth opening works similar to a pipette, sucking in water along with the prey in it. The seahorse's swim bladder is placed not according to the fish (horizontal) pattern, but according to the mammalian pattern - vertically. Accordingly, the body of the fish is always vertical. The head part of the bubble is separated by a wall from the rest of the body.

4. Beautiful and unusual shape The animal is fascinated... but because of it the horse cannot swim quickly. All that is available to him is graceful, graceful swimming, during which he rows with his fins. To ensure their safety, pipits have learned to deftly camouflage themselves in algae and corals, clinging to them with their tails and freezing motionless.

5. In terms of camouflage, a seahorse can easily compete with a chameleon. It takes on any color, be it black or yellow. In addition, the fish’s armor is so strong that breaking it is a non-trivial task even with mechanical tools.

6. But no beauty, no biological perfection can save skates from extinction. Almost all of their species are already in the Red Book. And it was precisely the elegant appearance that became the reason for the mass capture.

7. Natural beauty seahorses are not enough for poachers - they also transform these fish, bending the tail so that it looks like Latin letter WITH.

8. Eastern medicine actively uses the seahorse as a raw material for the manufacture of medicines against diseases of the skin and upper respiratory tract.

9. Despite all the efforts of the hunters, the seahorses were able to survive. Significant fertility helps them in this. Keeping a skate in captivity is very difficult; a lot of small living creatures are required for food. The fry can eat food for ten hours a day, during which time more than three thousand shrimp and crustaceans are consumed.

10. These amazing fish live on Earth for about forty million years, and it is up to you and me to ensure that they survive as long as possible.

Among unusual fish The seahorse is particularly unusual: it is difficult to recognize it as a fish. Let's talk a little about seahorses - how are they different from their other brothers from the class of fish?

Almost all fish swim the same way: the body is located horizontally and in the direction of movement. In seahorses, when swimming, the body is vertical, or slightly tilted forward. The strange way in which seahorses position their bodies when swimming is associated with the structure of these fish.

Fins and swim bladder

In most fish we see several fins: dorsal, caudal, anal, paired abdominal and paired pectoral. Seahorses have half as many fins: they have only three fins that help them move in the water:

Very small fan-shaped dorsal necessary for moving forward.
Tiny pectoral fins help maintain vertical balance and control movement.

The swim bladder helps them support their body vertically. It is located along the entire body, its front part extends into the head, which is typical only for this fish.

The swim bladder is divided into two parts. The volume of the head part of the bladder is noticeably larger than the abdominal part. It is this structure of the swim bladder that contributes to the vertical position of the skate when swimming. The seahorse is designed like a float: the upper part of the body is lighter than the lower part. The center of gravity is shifted downwards - to the tail part of the body, so the head is lighter and is located at the top.

Reproduction: Ritual morning greetings and male color changes

How seahorses reproduce - the incredible and strange uniqueness of this amazing fish. The male and female seem to have switched roles - the male carries and gives birth to the cubs. Scientists learned about this quite recently - in the last century.

Before talking about reproduction, you need to pay attention to the external integument of the seahorses:

The body of seahorses is covered on top with bony plates that form very strong, spiny armor. This is a real shell that is difficult to break even in dead fish.
The female's body is completely covered with bony plates, while the male has no plates at the base of the abdomen. Because here is a voluminous leathery pocket in which he bears his offspring.

Reproduction of seahorses living in tropical seas has interesting features in behavior. Early in the morning, males perform ritual greetings: each male swims around his chosen one, as if demonstrating readiness to reproduce. It was noted that at these moments the male’s shell in the chest area is colored dark color. With his head bowed, he moves in circles around the female, his tail slightly touching the bottom.

What about the female? She reacts to this behavior of the male - she begins to spin around herself after the male, but does not move from her place. During the breeding season, the greeting ritual is repeated every morning. Having completed this peculiar dance, the couple begins to have breakfast. The fish remain in a limited area and try to keep each other in sight. The closer the moment of mating, the longer the greeting ritual becomes and can even last the whole day.

IN temperate latitudes During the breeding season, male seahorses inflate their leathery pouch so that the skin becomes very stretched and becomes almost white.

Mating and spawning

We continue to explore the process of how seahorses reproduce and how mating occurs:

Mating requires that the male and female mature at the same time.
On the day of mating, during the greeting ritual, at a certain moment the female sharply raises her head and swims upward.
The male moves after her. At this moment, the female’s ovipositor is clearly visible, and the male’s pouch opens wide.
The female directs the ovipositor into the wide opening of the pouch and lays eggs there.
The process of laying eggs occurs in several stages, each lasting a few seconds. The female lays eggs until the bag is completely filled (it can hold more than 600 eggs).

If one of the partners is not ready, spawning is interrupted and the whole process begins again. The number of eggs laid usually depends on the size of the male and the type of fish. Different species produce from 30 - 60 eggs to 500 or more per spawning. For example, a long-snouted seahorse: an aged 10-12 centimeter female can lay more than 650 eggs.

Let's talk a little about male seahorses:

The male's readiness to mate is also manifested in a change in the internal state of the skin of the pocket: from the inside it becomes like a sponge filled with blood vessels.
The large number of blood vessels on the inside of the bursa plays an important role in the development of eggs. This is amazing feature structures of male seahorses!

When the eggs are laid and the pouch is completely filled with “priceless cargo,” the future daddy horse swims away with an inflated pocket, becoming like a unique “living stroller” filled with cubs.

The birth of small hippocampuses - seahorses

After 1-2 months, tiny fry are born - exact copies your parents. The male squeezes his offspring through a special hole in the pouch. When pushing out the last baby, the father fish can sometimes experience very strong and noticeable “birth pangs.” Therefore, the birth of babies is a very exhausting process for the male.

Immediately after birth, seahorse fry become independent because they do not receive any help from their parents. They begin to feed immediately after leaving the pouch. Different species have different behavioral strategies: the fry of some species move with the flow, others remain in the place of birth.

Are seahorses monogamous?

For a long time it was believed that seahorses are monogamous - they mate with one permanent partner.

It is likely that early naturalists who observed this behavior in one or two species concluded that it was characteristic of all seahorses. Over time, observations by both amateur aquarists and ichthyologists have proven that this is a myth. Seahorses are not at all monogamous.

British ichthyologists studied the sexual behavior of seahorses of different species and saw that individual individuals can “flirt” with 25 different partners during the day. For example, only five pairs of British spiny seahorses were faithful to each other, but twelve pairs were not.

IN home aquarium There have also been cases where a male accepted eggs from two females at the same time. It is likely that similar behavior during reproduction can be observed in nature too.

Signs of courtship in seahorses include color changes, synchronized swimming, and intertwining of tails.

Menu of seahorses in nature and in the aquarium

What do seahorses eat in the wild? Their food is tiny zooplankton (crustaceans). By type of feeding they are ambush predators:

Having a camouflage camouflage, its tail caught in the algae, the fish stands vertically in the water and tracks down its prey.
Having noticed the crustacean, the horse examines it for a couple of seconds, rolling its eyes in a funny way.
Then he inflates his cheeks, so high pressure is created in his mouth.
And immediately, like a vacuum cleaner, he pulls the crustacean into his mouth and swallows it.
Prey can be retracted from a distance of 4 cm.

Seahorses feed up to 10 hours a day and can eat more than 3,000 thousand brine shrimp. In the aquarium, these voracious fish willingly eat shrimp, live and frozen mysids, artemia, daphnia, and bloodworms. It is recommended to feed them twice a day daily, and the food should be varied. On some brine shrimp, pipits may feel hungry.

The place of the seahorse in the fish system, the Red Book and 2 hryvnia

Seahorses - small sea fish, ranging in size from 2 to 30 cm. They belong to the phylum of chordates, the subphylum of vertebrates, the superclass of fish - the class of bony fish and the subclass of ray-finned fish, the order of sticklebacks, the family of needles, the genus seahorses. The closest relatives of seahorses are pipefish, in which the male also bears the offspring.

Seahorses are currently on the verge of extinction. Many species are listed in the Red Book, for example the long-snouted seahorse from the Black Sea. This horse is depicted on a coin with a face value of 2 hryvnia, which was issued by the National Bank of Ukraine.

The massive catch of these exotic fish for making souvenirs has led to their complete disappearance in the Black Sea recreation areas. And since 1994, the Black Sea population of this species is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, and its catching is prohibited.

Children really like seahorses. Make a “Seahorse” bookmark with your child and study the features while completing a creative task appearance this amazing fish.