Seahorse: A Very Interesting Animal

Seahorse is very popular animal. There are a lot of interesting feature associated with a seahorse. Here in this article we will try to bring out some of those.

The biological name of sea horse is Hippocampus. This means horse caterpillar.

Though it is hard to believe but sea horse is a fish. Like many of the other fishes they breathe through gills and use swim bladders to control buoyancy. Seahorse is classified under class Actinopterygii where most of the bony fishes are present. Unlike any other fishes they have neck, a stout and a long tail. The neck of a sea horse is flexible.

They use their prehensile tail to hold on to grass or other weeds and prevent from being washed away by water currents.

The sea horses have independently movable eyes with excellent eye sight. The meaning is that they can look forward and backward in the same time.

In sea horse the skeleton is outside of the body (Exoskeleton) whereas in other fishes it is inside. They do not have any tail fins; though they possess other fins. They do not have any scales either.

Unlike fishes they like to rest in one area. They are not known for their swimming abilities and use only their dorsal fin for this purpose. Unique feature of their swimming is unlike any other fish which swims horizontally, it swims vertically. The dwarf sea horse is the slowest fish in the world (top speed is about 5 ft per hour).

There are more than 50 species of Seahorse. The size varies from 1 to 15 inch depending on the species.

The food for a sea horse ranges from sea plankton to crustaceans. They use their stout as vacuum cleaners for getting food. Some of the species can blend into the surrounding very easily. This camouflage helps them to defend themselves against predators.

They do not have any stomach.

One of the unique features of a sea horse is that the male becomes pregnant and give birth to the young ones.
During pregnancy they release same type of hormones that pregnant mammal females do. Male sea horse posses a brood pouch and females use a depositor to sent her eggs into the pouch.

It was believed that they are monogamous animal and they pair for life but later studies have proven this wrong. Though, the sea horse will stay with the same mate though out the breeding season. Before breeding they display courtship. Both male and female sea horse changes their colors during this period.

In China, seahorse is consumed and also used in medicine for their conceived medicinal values.
Baby sea horses are known as Fry.

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