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Home › Sea Wildlife › Marine Species › Vertebrates › Seahorses

Interesting Facts about Seahorses

[Seahorse Phylum: Chordata] [Class: Actinopterygii] [Order: Syngnathiformes] [Genus: Hippocampus]

Seahorses are small bony marine fish that live in shallow temperate and tropical habitats. They're most commonly found hiding in seagrass beds, coral reef ecosystems, and mangrove forests.

This section contains fun facts about seahorses (Hippocampus), including where they're found, what they eat, and why the reproductive strategies of the seahorse family Syngnathidae are so unique.

Seahorse Facts: Global Range and Habitats

The diffident nature and reclusivity of seahorses means they are rarely seen in the wild.

Yet, the distribution spans tropical, subtropical, and temperate coastal waters worldwide, especially:

• Atlantic Ocean (along the coasts of Africa, the Americas, and Europe)
• Eastern Pacific (California, Peru, southern Australia, and New Zealand)
• Indo-Pacific Region (Southeast Asia and northern Australia)
• The Mediterranean Sea (Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain)

Most of the seahorse species inhabit shallow marine intertidal zones, rarely deeper than thirty (30) metres (about 100 feet).

Even so, some of the deeper-dwelling seahorses, like the bullneck seahorse (Hippocampus minotaur), can tolerate depths approaching one hundred (100) metres below sea level.

Out of the 47 species of seahorses that still exist, the vast majority are coastal dwellers that thrive best in shallow and sheltered environments, such as:

• Algal beds, kelp, and seagrass meadows (primarily for robust anchorage for their curled prehensile tail and for camouflage)
• Mangrove roots (offering nutrient-rich food sources of macroalgae and relative shelter)
• Coral reef formations (complex reef networks, sea sponges, in tropical regions offer good hiding places and hunting grounds)
• Estuaries and coastal lagoons (some types of seahorse live in brackish waters, particularly the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus zosterae))

Interesting Fact: Even though the seahorse scientific name is Hippocampus, the common name seahorse comes from a striking resemblance to its 'equine' namesake.

Seahorse Characteristics

As you might expect, seahorses spend much of their static lives clinging to stationary corals and other structures, attached by an extremely effective prehensile tail.

The thin stretched hide covers a number of bony, 'interlocking' plate rings, which also helps to construct the main frame of their abdomen.

Here's the thing:

The plates are not fish scales and the quantity is distinctly related to each scientific classification. So, despite being a fish and one of the marine vertebrate species, seahorses do not have fish scales.

The hard exterior skin consists of tough plates fused together to create their exoskeleton.

This unique assembly of skin and bones is responsible for the way seahorses swim.

They do not move through the water horizontally - like their closest family group the pipefishes.

Instead, seahorses and the razorfish species all swim in a vertical position.

A small coral net sported above their flexible neck and sturdy head, with long food-sucking snouts, individualises each seahorse species.

Hence, differing in size and a unique design creates its crown, which is actually as individual as human fingerprints.

Seahorses have excellent eyesight and their eyes function independently like a chameleon. This means that if one eye looks forward, the other eye can check the surroundings behind them - at the same time.

Add to this an inefficient dorsal fin, an absent caudal fin, and almost rudderless pectoral fins located at the rear of their eyes, seahorses are very weak swimmers.

But wait - there's more:

Seahorses survive by camouflage. Thus, most species live their lives hiding in colorful coral formations. They blend in with similar sized and shaped reef structures and textures of their natural habitat.

Whereas, other seahorse species are capable of changing their body tones using natural camouflage for protection.

Seahorse Size

The smallest of all seahorses is the minute pygmy seahorse species measuring less than two centimeters. Yet, the pot-bellied seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) holds the current record for being the largest (around 35 cm).

Fun Fact: The dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus zosterae), found mostly in the Bahamas, is the slowest moving fish at snail speeds of 2.5 centimetres per minute.

Types of Seahorses

What Do Seahorses Eat?

Seahorses are not only carnivorous, they're one of the most ferocious of all ambush predators that live in the seas and oceans.

Because they do not have teeth (nor a stomach) they need to eat various types of tiny marine organisms - almost continuously - to stay alive.

The primary diet also includes a generous mix of small aquatic crustaceans, especially:

• Amphipods
• Copepods
• Larval fishes
• Mysid shrimp (opossum shrimp)
• Zooplankton

Seahorse Reproduction

Seahorses are monogamous and stay with their chosen companion for life. They mate with only one partner and the courtship display of dancing, changing colours, swimming in tandem, and spinning around each other, often continues for more than six (6) hours.

Male seahorses have a brooding pouch located at the front of their tail. During seahorse reproduction, the female transfers around 1,500 eggs into the brood sac on the male's abdomen.

Then...

The male seahorse will duly nurture the fertilised eggs for a period between two (2) and six (6) weeks until the microscopic baby seahorses appear.

The young fry are 'ejected' into their new surroundings anatomically fully developed, but incredibly tiny in size.

The male is relinquished from his parental duties, and often begins to mate again for further breeding activities, within a few hours. And so, the reproductive cycle of seahorses begins once more.

Sea Horse Predators and Threats

Despite being ferocious deadly killers themselves, various predators also prey on the seahorse species in the wild, including:

• Crabs
• Rays
• Sea turtles
• Skates
• Starfish

In addition, some human-induced activities are having an effect on some seahorse habitats, such as:

• Coastal development
• Habitat loss of seagrass and mangroves
• Plastic pollution in the ocean
• Destructive fishing practices (especially bottom trawling)

Important: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessed most seahorse species as being widespread and of "Least Concern" (LC). However, they list the flat-faced seahorse (Hippocampus trimaculatus) as "Vulnerable" and the softcoral seahorse (Hippocampus debelius) as "Near Threatened".

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