Interesting facts about the seahorse. Seahorse, lesson notes

Hello, my dear young readers and wise parents! In the "Projects" section new topic! "ShkolaLa" helps prepare a report about the seahorse. Whatever class you are in primary school, a report about this resident of the sea will be an indispensable highlight in a lesson on the surrounding world. Read it and you will understand why.

Lesson plan:

What kind of animal is a seahorse?

This aquatic resident with an extraordinary appearance does not at all look like a fish. But in fact, it belongs to the needle-shaped fish family. Most of all, he looks like a chess piece, which is probably why he was nicknamed that.

The body is crocheted, the back is humped, the abdomen is forward. Yes, and he has a horse’s head, and his mouth, elongated into a tube, resembles a muzzle, and when he moves he relies on a tail curled into a ring.

Why not a miniature horse!

This fish is also called a dragon, since many species really resemble this one fairy tale character with their wings spread to the sides, except that there are not three heads, but only one!

In total, there are up to 50 species of seahorses, the size of which can be up to 30 centimeters. But the smallest of them is a dwarf, he is only 2 centimeters tall. Almost 30 species are listed in the Red Book.

This is interesting! Scientists' research has proven that the seahorse's closest relative is the needle fish, from which it separated as much as 23 million years ago! Today, the fish has preserved numerous long spines from its ancestor.

Where can you see a seahorse? He lives in the tropics and subtropics. His home is a thicket of algae and coral reefs Black Sea, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, the coasts of Australia, the Japanese Yellow Sea and the Russian Azov Sea.

This is interesting! Seahorses They are excellent at playing hide and seek and are fluent in the art of camouflage. They have special cells - chromatophores, which color the skate to match its environment. At the same time, you can only see an aquatic chameleon by its nose sticking out of the algae.

Most often, miniature horses are brown, yellowish or green shades, but those that live among the corals are red and purple. Like Christmas tree toy hanging in sea depths such tips, caught by the tail on the plants.

How do seahorses swim?

It is difficult to call a seahorse a fish also because it does not swim like everyone else. Its body is located vertically in the water. The swim bladder running along the body helps him maintain balance. It is divided into two parts: the head is larger than the abdominal, so the skate swims upright.

By changing the volume of gas in the bubble, the fish cruises, rising upward and also plunging to depth. If something happens to the skate's bladder, it has no choice but to lie still until it dies.

This is interesting! Dwarf representatives are the slowest fish in the world. They move, as they say, “a teaspoon per hour” - only one and a half meters in 60 minutes.

The tail of the fish is very flexible and without fins; the seahorse uses it like an anchor, clinging to corals and plants. By the way, he can hug his girlfriend with it.

But it cannot row using its tail. For this purpose, there is a movable fin on the back and a pair of pectoral fins.

Given this structure, the seahorse is a poor swimmer, and he strives to compete, spending most of his time in a suspended state, looking around.

What's on the seahorse's menu?

The water horse feeds on plankton - small crustaceans, which it tracks by actively rotating its eyes. The fish's tiny mouth is located at the end of its tube-shaped muzzle.

As soon as the food approaches the little hunter, he puffs out his cheeks and, like a vacuum cleaner, strongly sucks up the crustaceans.

This is interesting! These fish have neither teeth nor stomach. Their digestive organs are like a ramjet engine that constantly needs to be refueled.

Tiny horses can hang around for up to 10 hours waiting for food, they don’t really need to hunt, just sit in one place and lunch floats by. Moreover, as we already understood, he is not much of a swimmer. So in a day a lazy glutton eats up to 3.5 thousand crustaceans.

Pregnant dads

Yes, yes, we were not mistaken! This is exactly the only case when pregnancy is not a woman’s business. In seahorses, males bear their offspring! For this purpose, the male has a pouch on his abdomen, similar to a kangaroo, where the eggs are laid.

Of these, up to 1,500 miniature seahorses appear after 40 days.

This is interesting! Sea horse- the only fish that has a neck.

But all these days, the frivolous mother visits her friend only in the morning, blithely sailing away after five minutes of the meeting until the next day to go about her business. Or maybe forget about him completely!

Even after birth, dad takes care of the offspring: at the first danger, he gives them a signal, and they instantly hide safely in his bag.

Do seahorses have enemies?

Although the body of a seahorse is covered with a hard bony shell and spines, and the fish is too tough for most, it can become dinner for crabs or stingrays.

However, the biggest danger for him is man. The unique appearance of the fish and its beneficial properties became the reason for mass fishing.

Seahorses are caught for souvenirs, for preparing expensive oriental dishes and for medicinal purposes.

This is interesting! When searching for food, as well as for vigilance, these fish manage to look with both eyes at the same time. different sides. And their visual organs can look like this: one is forward, and the other controls what is happening behind.

They try to keep exotic seahorses in aquariums, but they do not adapt well to the artificial environment. If nothing threatens the fish, then it can live up to 5 years.

This is how we briefly talked about amazing creature with the body of a horse, the pouch of a kangaroo, the rotating eyes of a chameleon and the prehensile tail of a monkey.

I hope you will interest the whole class with your story. And for clarity, print out photographs of these exotic fish or, if possible, show them this video. Let the kids see that they are truly unique.

See you again on the “ShkolaLa” blog and in the “Projects” section

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich

The seahorse is a small fish, which is a representative of the Spine family from the order Stickleback. Research has shown that the seahorse is a highly modified pipefish. Today the seahorse is pretty rare creature. In this article you will find a description and photo of a seahorse and learn a lot of new and interesting things about this extraordinary creature.

The seahorse looks very unusual and its body shape resembles a chess piece of a horse. The seahorse fish has many long bony spines and various leathery projections on its body. Thanks to this body structure, the seahorse appears unnoticed 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 curled 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 seahorse’s swim bladder 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 increasingly rare and is on the verge of extinction due to a rapid decline in numbers. There are many reasons for the disappearance of the seahorse. The main one is the destruction by humans of both the fish itself and its habitats. Off the coast of Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, pipits are being caught en masse. Exotic appearance and the bizarre shape of the body became the reason that people began to make gift souvenirs from them. For beauty, the tail is artificially arched and the body is given the shape of the letter “S”, but in nature skates do not look like that.

Another reason that contributes to the decline in the seahorse population is that they are a delicacy. Gourmets highly value 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. Luckily, seahorses are very fertile and can produce over a thousand young at a time, keeping the seahorses from becoming extinct. Seahorses are bred in captivity, but this fish is very demanding 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. The seahorse fish lives mainly at shallow depths or near the shore and leads a sedentary lifestyle. The seahorse lives in dense thickets of algae and other marine vegetation. It attaches itself to plant stems or corals with its flexible tail, remaining almost invisible due to its body covered with various projections and spines.

The seahorse fish changes body color to completely blend in with environment. In this way, the seahorse successfully camouflages itself not only from predators, but also while foraging for food. 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, it attaches its tail to the fins of various fish and stays on them until the “free taxi” swims into the algae thickets.

What do seahorses eat?

Seahorses eat crustaceans and shrimp. Seahorses eat very interestingly. 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 of a couple of hours.

Seahorses eat about 3 thousand planktonic crustaceans per day. But seahorses eat almost any food, as long as it does not exceed the size of their mouth. The seahorse fish is a hunter. With its flexible tail, the seahorse clings to the algae and remains motionless until the prey is in the required proximity to the head. After which the seahorse absorbs water along with food.

How do seahorses reproduce?

Seahorses reproduce quite in an unusual way, because their fry is carried by the male. Seahorses often have monogamous pairs. Mating season seahorses are an amazing sight. A couple who are about to enter into a marriage union are held together by their tails and dance in the water. During the dance, the skates press against each other, after which the male opens a special pocket in the abdominal area, into which the female throws eggs. Subsequently, the male bears offspring for a month.

Seahorses reproduce quite often and produce large offspring. A seahorse gives birth to one thousand or more young at a time. The fry are born an absolute copy of the 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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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 in different directions, 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 health

To mature age Only one in a hundred fry survive. In fact, this figure is one of the highest for fish. IN lately the greatest danger to seahorses is 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.

Program content:

Introduce children to the seahorse (appearance, lifestyle, behavioral characteristics).
Vocabulary: seahorse, horizontal, vertical, portion.
Expand children's knowledge about the Red Book.
Bring up careful attitude to nature.

Equipment:

Photos of a seahorse, chess piece “knight”, paper, seahorse figurine templates, pencils.

Progress of the lesson:

In the thickets of sea grass in the Black Sea you can see funny fish - seahorses. This is very interesting creatures. Take a look at the photo. The head of these fish is exactly like a horse's, but there are no scales, the body is covered with hard bone plates. With its tail bent forward, the seahorse clings to the stems of sea grass like a monkey. The skate's mouth is like a tube. Like a vacuum cleaner, it sucks up worms, crustaceans and other small animals. A seahorse's eyes rotate in any direction, and if one eye is looking to the right, the other may be looking at something to the left at the same time. This is very convenient for the skate, since it can simultaneously inspect the algae from all sides in search of food and keep an eye on the enemies, who themselves would not mind eating it.

The seahorse does not like to swim and spends most of its life with its tail caught in algae. Swims only in search of food, during weddings and to escape from enemies.
He swims like a candle, belly first, in an upright position. What does "vertical" mean? (Children's answers). Show your palm in a vertical position.
A seahorse will graze. He eats, and then ties himself with his tail to a stalk of algae and stands again, resting until the next feeding.

Poem about a seahorse

In the sea, in the playful thickets,
The flame of the fire curls -
The waters are blowing their mane
A restive skate.
He sees any hole,
Keeps a watchful eye on the prey,
Don't yawn, silly crustacean:
One jump away from the enemy.

It seems that the seahorse is quickly waving its fins, but the speed is still low. Therefore, the horse rarely manages to escape. If he managed to hide, he was saved, but if he caught the enemy’s eye, he would catch up and eat him.

Fishermen call the seahorse a sea caterpillar. Take a close look at the photo again. Why do you think it is called the sea caterpillar? (Children's answers). The lower part of the skate's body, especially when in motion, resembles a caterpillar. And the upper part, according to many, looks like a knight chess piece. This is the figure. (Showing a chess piece). Do you agree with this opinion? What similarities do you think there are? (Children's answers).

Game "Seahorses"

I suggest you play a little. The carpet is the sea, at the bottom of which you can find worms and crustaceans - the favorite food of seahorses. Each of you will now turn into a skate and go to feed. Attention! Your task: find 4 crustaceans and 7 worms for each person. Get ready! Forward! (Then the correctness of the task is calculated - counting “crustaceans” and “worms”).

Seahorses do not like to change their place of residence and usually remain for their entire lives where their father gave birth. It is the father, not the mother. In skates, the female lays eggs in a special pouch on the male's belly. And it all starts with the fact that one day, in a beautiful underwater “park,” the horse first politely bowed to the female, and then invited her to dance. If she agrees, the dance begins. The skates either approach and greet each other, then gradually move away... and then come closer again. This sometimes goes on for days. To make dancing more convenient, the skates hug each other with the ends of their tails and sing, or rather, make sounds like this. (Snapping fingers). Try making this sound yourself. (Children snap their fingers.)

This is where the holiday ends. The female lays her eggs in a pouch on the male's belly and swims away forever. And the horse father bears the eggs. When the eggs in the male's abdomen hatch and tiny skates begin to flounder, he chooses a secluded place and begins to give birth. For stability, its tail catches on the algae, bends, and writhes. Finally, his abdominal pouch bursts, ruptures, and the newly born sons and daughters, as expected, fall out in portions, heads down. How do you understand the meaning of the word “portions”? (Children's answers). This means not all at once, but one at a time, in groups.

There are quite a lot of children - 100 or 200, so at the end of childbirth the exhausted dad is so tired that he sinks to the bottom without strength and lies there for a long time, resting in an unloved horizontal position. What does "horizontally" mean? (Children's answers). Show your palm in a horizontal position.

Newly born skates look just like their parents. And they immediately cling to the algae with their tails. They stay close to their dad even in case of danger. By special sound signal, hiding in his empty pouch on his abdomen. After the danger has passed, the nimble kids get out again. Over time, this bag becomes overgrown, and the seahorse becomes handsome again, and again invites the pretty “seahorse” to dance, and everything will happen again.

Now there are fewer and fewer seahorses in the Black Sea. The seahorse is even listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. What kind of book is this and who is included in it? (Children's answers). Skates are caught not only specifically for making medicine from them; vacationers often catch them as a fun souvenir, dry them and take them home. The horse is a coastal resident. He can't swim fast, so it's easy to catch him. Some try in banks with sea water take away skates for an aquarium, but skates don’t live in aquariums - they immediately die.
I really hope that if you happen to encounter a seahorse, you will limit yourself to observing it and not rush to catch it. And if you see others doing this, tell them about the seahorse, ask them not to offend these amazing fish.

Now let's try to dance the seahorse dance. Become couples. (Children, following the example of an adult, dance to the music.)

It's time to remember what you remember about seahorses.

Questions:

1. Is a seahorse a mollusk or a fish? Prove it.
2. What does a seahorse eat?
3. Why do they say about the horse that he tied himself by the tail?
4. What is a seahorse compared to? Who does he look like?
5. How do skates swim?
6. What kind of eyes do seahorses have?
7. In what cases do skates dance?
8. How do seahorses give birth to babies?
9. In what case does a seahorse lie horizontally on the bottom?
10. Why are seahorses listed in the Red Book?

And at the end of our lesson, I invite you to draw an episode from the life of a seahorse. You can draw the skate itself by tracing the template. But what moment of his life you will depict, think about it in advance. Don't forget about the safety of the skate - be sure to draw algae in which it can hide. Get to work. (After completing the work, the children are asked to give a name to their drawing, look at the drawings of their comrades and try to determine what moment in the life of the horse is depicted).

Not crucian carp, not perch,
Has a long neck
Who is he? Guess it quickly!
Well, of course, it’s a hobby!

Seahorse (from Latin Hippocampus) small, cute sea fish unusual shape from the genus of bony fish (family pipefish) order Acicularis. Looking at this fish, one immediately remembers the chess piece of a knight. Long neck – distinctive feature skate. If you disassemble the skate into body parts, then its head resembles that of a horse, its tail resembles that of a monkey, its eyes resemble those of a chameleon, and its outer coverings resemble those of insects. The unusual structure of the tail allows the skate to cling to seaweed and corals and hide in them, sensing danger. The ability to mimic (camouflage) makes the seahorse practically invulnerable. The seahorse feeds on plankton. Young skates are quite voracious and can eat for 10 hours in a row, eating up to three thousand crustaceans and shrimp. The vertical position of the seahorse relative to the water is its distinctive feature.

It is interesting that the seahorse - caring father and faithful husband. The difficult burden of motherhood falls on the shoulders of the male. The seahorse independently carries the baby in a special bag, which is located in the lower part of the seahorse's abdomen. Exactly there on time mating games the female injects the eggs. If the female dies, the male for a long time remains faithful to its partner and vice versa, if the male dies, the female remains faithful to the male for up to 4 weeks.

Dimensions

The size of a seahorse varies from two to three centimeters to 30. Thirty centimeters is the size of a giant seahorse. The average size is 10 or 12 centimeters. The smallest representatives, dwarf seahorses, are about 13 or even 3 millimeters. With a size of 13 centimeters, the mass of a seahorse is about 10 grams.