Many have seen these sea creatures on TV or in aquariums, but not everyone realizes how surprising interesting facts about the seahorse can be. These beautiful fish representatives amaze with their unique properties. However, they are very difficult to observe in the wild. Moreover, the number of seahorses has recently declined sharply due to the destruction of their habitats.
- Seahorses are the only fish with necks. Scientists have proven that seahorses are relatives of needle fish. True, during evolution their body has changed a lot. Unlike other fish, skates are located vertically in the water due to the fact that the swim bladder is distributed throughout the body. The S-shaped body shape allows skates to successfully hunt from cover. They freeze among the seaweed or reefs, and when a tiny larva swims by, they grab it by turning their heads.
- Skates can ride on fish. Thanks to their curved tail, seahorses can travel long distances. They grab onto the fins of the perch and hold on until the fish swims into the algae thickets. And the skates grab their mate with their tail and swim in an embrace.
- Skates' eyes move independently of each other. The seahorse's organ of vision is similar to the eyes of a chameleon. One eye of these fish can look forward, and the other can see what is happening behind.
- Master of Disguise Skates. The ability to change color depending on location allows seahorses to avoid numerous enemies. Just like chameleons, pipits match the color of their scales to the color of coral or algae, making them almost invisible.
- Seahorses have an excellent appetite. They don't have teeth, they don't even have a stomach. In order not to die, these fish have to eat constantly. With their proboscis, pipits suck in plankton, small larvae and crustaceans. Moreover, this happens so quickly that it is difficult to track.
- Almost no one eats seahorses. These small fish can become prey for other predators only by accident. They consist almost entirely of bones, spines and scales, so there are few hunters for them, except perhaps stingrays and large crabs.
- Seahorses are susceptible to stress. Stress often poses a mortal danger to seahorses. These fish thrive in clean, calm water. Strong sea motion leads to depletion of their strength. And with a sudden change of location, they may even die. Therefore, it is difficult to breed skates in aquariums; they do not take root well in an artificial environment.
- The female chooses the male herself. We can say that seahorses have a matriarchy. After all, it is the females who decide which male to choose as a spouse.
- Seahorses perform mating dances. For several days, the female performs a kind of dance with her supposed chosen one, rising to the surface of the water and sinking to the bottom, intertwining her tails. If the male lags behind the bride, she will most likely leave him and look for another, more profitable match.
- Male seahorses are "pregnant". If the female has chosen a suitable male, then she remains faithful to him until the end of her life. She entrusts the male with bearing the eggs and caring for the offspring. The female transfers the eggs to a special pouch on the male’s body. There, future skates grow within a month and a half. And then they are born as full-fledged fish. One male can simultaneously produce from 5 to 1.5 thousand fry. However, male seahorses still cannot be called pregnant. After all, fry are not born in their body, but are only kept until full maturity. This is a function of protecting future offspring.
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- Skates are fragile, but tenacious. One in a hundred seahorse fry born survives to become full-fledged adults. This is a very high indicator for fish. It is thanks to this indicator that seahorses have not become extinct to this day.
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- The horse is on the coat of arms of the city of Zaozersk. For several years in a row, a seahorse was depicted on the coat of arms of the Russian city of Zaozersk (Murmansk region). The image was supposed to symbolize the naval power of the Northern Fleet. But, since seahorses are not found in the waters of the Barents Sea, the image of the seahorse was replaced by the image of a dolphin. It should be noted that seahorses are inhabitants of tropical and subtropical salt water bodies. And not all of Russia’s largest seas are included in this list.
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- 30 species of skates are listed in the Red Book. But science knows only 32 species of these fish. There are several reasons for the extinction of seahorses. But almost all of them are related to human activity. In Thailand, Australia, and Malaysia, skates are caught to be dried and used as souvenirs. In oriental medicine they are used to prepare medicines for asthma and skin diseases. In addition, the habitats of seahorses are polluted or completely destroyed by humans. And plankton useful for skates is often eaten by jellyfish, which are favorably affected by climate change.
- Seahorses are a delicacy. A dish using the liver and eyes of seahorses is served in the most expensive restaurants in the world. These parts of skates are considered very tasty and healthy. The cost of the delicacy is on average $800 per serving. And in China, fried skates are served on sticks.
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- Skates have lived on Earth for 40 million years.. Although fossilized seahorses are rare, scientists have proven that these fish have existed for tens of millions of years. They appeared at a time when, as a result of tectonic shifts in the earth's crust, shallows formed in the oceans and algae began to spread.
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Parental problems of pipefish and their relatives
Male pipefish, like male seahorses, prepare very carefully to raise their future offspring. True, eggs are hatched differently in different types of needles. In some, the skin on the abdomen turns into a kind of sponge, and the eggs laid by the female are completely immersed in this porous tissue. In others, during the breeding season, two longitudinal folds of skin appear on the underside of the tail, which cover the eggs on both sides, but are not connected to each other. In still others, the folds grow together and a real pouch is formed, similar to the brood pouch of seahorses. In it (as, indeed, in the case if the folds are not connected) there is a large number of blood vessels through which the eggs and fry are supplied with oxygen and harmful metabolic products are eliminated. In the inner epithelial layer, which is in close contact with the shell of the eggs, there are special cells responsible for osmoregulation, i.e. maintaining a certain concentration of salts in the contents of the bag. This point is very important for needle fish, since most of them live in places with variable salinity of water (in shallow water, near river mouths). Eggs and fry, not yet able to carry out the processes of osmoregulation themselves, would die if the salt concentration inside the brood chamber changed as sharply as in the external environment.
After the body of male pipefish has been rebuilt and they are ready to accept eggs, mating activities begin. Unlike “respectable” seahorses, many pipefish are polygamous, i.e. do not adhere to constancy in marital relations. Each female lays eggs in the pouches of several males, so a male often carries eggs from different females. Moreover, in some species, for example, in the seaside pipefish that lives in our Far East, males during spawning gracefully court females for about an hour and a half, seeking their favor. In other polygamous species, there is a change in behavioral roles - in them, females are already looking for the favor of representatives of the stronger sex. They acquire bright mating colors (in some cases, various decorations in the form of additional folds and “frills” also develop on their body) and actively court the males. And they, in turn, choose which of the females caring for them to prefer and allow her to lay eggs in the prepared “nursery”. Female needlefish do not have any special devices that would allow them to stay close to the male while laying eggs, so they have to hurry. A well-developed muscle layer in the walls of the ovaries and a large number of nerve fibers form a mechanism that allows the female to quickly inject a portion of eggs into the male’s brood pouch and then go in search of the next candidate parent.
It is interesting that male pipefish of some species, like seahorses, may have eggs and larvae at different stages of development in the brood chamber, while others may have only one. These species probably use different strategies: they fertilize the eggs in batches as they appear, or first wait until the bag is filled to capacity.
Interestingly, fertilization of eggs in the closed space of the pouch allows male needlefish to produce a record small number of germ cells, since each of the sperm in this case is simply “doomed to success.”
The amount of caviar that can fit in the bag also varies for different types of needles. Thus, male seaside pipefish, with a length of 20 and a thickness of 1 cm, are capable of bearing more than a thousand young. At the beginning of pregnancy there are a thousand eggs with a diameter of about 1 mm, and by the end (after about a month) there are a thousand fry with a length of 11–12 mm.
The hatching of tiny needles from the egg membranes begins around the second week after the eggs are laid and fertilized, after which the larvae continue to develop in the confined space of the paternal pouch. So the male pipefish experiences all the hardships of “pregnancy”, including the very significant weight of the growing fry and their constant movement...
Like seahorses, needlefish are highly valued in oriental medicine and are therefore caught in large quantities in many places. True, in smaller quantities than skates, which are valued more highly by healers and “go well” as just souvenirs. Most of the seahorse species have already been included in the IUCN Red List (see “Biology”, No. 42/2002). For pipefish, the situation is not yet so critical, but the only way to preserve these species in the future seems to be through artificial breeding. Attempts at such breeding have already been made in Australia and Vietnam. However, this “industry” is just in its infancy, and there are still many difficulties on the way to turning needle fish into an aquaculture object. A number of problems arise, in particular, with feeding, as well as with the development of measures to prevent various diseases of these cute fish. However, scientists do not lose hope and continue to work actively. Perhaps in this way it will be possible to preserve for posterity amazing fish that are simply distinguished by their unique and selfless care for their offspring.
Seahorses are very peculiar fish with an extraordinary appearance and interesting biology. They belong to the spiny family of the order Stickleback. This affiliation is not accidental, because seahorses, one might say, are brothers of other interesting fish - pipefish. There are 50 known species of seahorses, several of the largest species are called sea dragons.
Grass sea dragon, or ragpiper (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus).
The appearance of seahorses is so unusual that at first glance it is difficult to recognize them as fish. The body of the skates is bizarrely curved, the back sticks out with a hump, the abdomen also protrudes forward, the front part of the body is thin and curved like the neck of a horse (hence the name). The head is small, its front part is elongated like a tube, the eyes are bulging. The tail of seahorses is long and very flexible; in a calm state, the fish curls it into a ring or wraps its tail around the stems of aquatic plants. The body of skates is covered with various thickenings, knobs, outgrowths and similar decorations. The coloring of these fish is often monochromatic, but different species are colored very differently. In any case, the coloring of each species very accurately imitates the color and texture of the surface on which this horse lives. Pipits living among aquatic plants are often brown, yellowish, and green; Pipits living among corals can be red, bright yellow, or purple.
Seahorses are fluent in the art of camouflage.
In addition, each fish can change its hue to some extent. Seahorses are small fish, their size varies from 2 to 20 cm.
The smallest species, the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), is only 2 cm long. It is completely indistinguishable from coral branches.
These fish live in the seas of tropical and subtropical zones. Their range encircles the entire globe. Seahorses live in shallow waters among seagrass beds or among corals. These are sedentary and generally very sedentary fish. Typically, seahorses wrap their tail around a branch of coral or a tuft of sea grass and spend most of their time in this position. But large sea dragons do not know how to attach to vegetation. For short distances they swim holding their body vertically; if they have to leave the “home”, they can swim in an almost horizontal position. They swim slowly. In general, the character of these fish is surprisingly calm and meek; seahorses do not show aggression towards their fellow fish and other fish.
The intricately decorated leafy sea dragon (Phycodurus eques) is indistinguishable from its surroundings.
They feed on plankton. They track the smallest crustaceans by rolling their eyes funny. As soon as the prey approaches the miniature hunter, the seahorse inflates its cheeks, creating negative pressure in the mouth and sucks up the crustacean like a vacuum cleaner. Despite their small size, skates are big eaters and can indulge in gluttony for up to 10 hours a day.
Seahorses are monogamous fish; they live in married pairs, but can periodically change partners. It is characteristic that these fish carry eggs, with males and females changing roles. During the mating season, females grow a tube-shaped ovipositor, and in the male, thickened folds in the tail area form a pouch. Before spawning, partners perform a long mating dance.
Spawning pair of seahorses.
The female lays eggs in the male's pouch and he carries them for about 2 weeks. Newborn fry emerge from the pouch through a narrow opening. Sea dragons do not have a pouch and hatch eggs on the stem of their tail. The fertility of different species ranges from 5 to 1500 fry. Newborn fish are completely independent and move away from the parent pair.
Eggs on the tail of a sea dragon.
Currently, many species of seahorses have become very rare, and some are even on the verge of extinction. This is facilitated by the massive catch of these fish and their low fertility. Seahorses are caught for meat, which is used in the cooking of eastern countries and in oriental medicine. In addition, souvenirs made from dried seahorses are very popular. It is not very easy to keep seahorses in aquariums; they are demanding of food and are susceptible to disease, but it is very interesting to watch them.
The leafy sea dragon broods the eggs.
how a male seahorse gives birth to fry.
Seahorses are wonderful creatures that attract aquarists with their unusual appearance and charming habits. These animals require a salty and very clean water environment, which is one of the difficulties of keeping them at home.
Seahorse in an aquarium - appearance
The seahorse is unlike any other sea creature. A large belly, a horse's head, a nimble tail that grabs support, a manner of swimming in an upright position - all these are characteristic features of these animals, radically distinguishing them from all other inhabitants of the depths of the sea.
Erect seahorse ( Hippocampus erectus) is the most accessible and most often kept in the aquariums of beginner hobbyists. The species is distributed in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean, its habitat extends from northern Canada to the Caribbean Sea, representatives can be found in coastal waters near coral reefs, as well as near man-made structures such as piers and breakwaters.
This small creature can reach 15 cm from head to tail, the surface of the body is covered with circular leathery plates rather than fish scales. The horse deftly wraps its tenacious tail around suitable objects, holding on tightly, and spends most of its time this way, saving strength during the ebb and flow of the tides.
The upright seahorse is decorated with a lined transverse pattern, bright dots on the tail and a specific “saddle” pattern on the back.
This species is one of the most beloved in marine aquarium keeping and its representatives, as a rule, are successfully kept and reproduced in captivity. In the wild, these animals are considered rare or endangered due to the degradation of their natural habitat, popularity as souvenirs, and for use in folk medicine.
You should purchase a seahorse from breeders who raise and reproduce these animals in captivity, or from reputable pet stores. Individuals obtained in an artificial environment are distinguished by good health, the ability to consume frozen food and much better adaptability to the conditions of a new aquarium.
Seahorse in an aquarium - basic requirements
Seahorses are very attractive pets, but they are quite vulnerable and fragile creatures that require special conditions. One of the main requirements remains a fairly low temperature, which fluctuates around 21 °C, which is much lower than the temperature range for most aquarium fish.
The minimum volume of an aquarium for seahorses is 140-150 liters; one or two pairs of animals can be placed in such a tank. At the bottom there are several driftwood, as well as other objects for the skates to cling to, and secluded grottoes are provided. The surrounding aquatic environment should be free of injurious or potentially dangerous objects and creatures, including corals or anemones with their stinging cells.
A necessary condition for the normal life of skates is a constant flow of water. A good filter can ensure both water movement and the quality of the aquatic environment. The flow rate should be sufficient - within 10 revolutions of the entire volume of aquarium water per hour. If the speed is too high, the fragile, slow skates will have to constantly resist the current, which can weaken them, lead to exhaustion and even death. It is advisable to provide a couple of quiet harbors - places with minimal current, where animals can rest if desired.
Seahorses eat a lot, and the food, due to the imperfection of the digestive system of these animals, must be rich in proteins and fats. The result of vigorous vital activity and the digestion of large quantities of dense food is constantly polluted water, so it is important to pay attention to both mechanical and biological treatment using a variety of skimmers.
Seahorses tend to act slowly in everything, they also eat slowly and can stare at a shrimp for ten minutes, assessing whether it is worth making an effort for this prey, so life with active fish can be an unbearable test for seahorses. On top of this, fast fish frighten seahorses, forcing them to live in constant stress, which jeopardizes their health, well-being and reduces their ability to reproduce.
Peculiar pets can be placed with other calm, peace-loving and slow-moving fish, for example, blennies, as well as snails or small hermit crabs. And yet, most breeders prefer to keep their pets in a separate tank.
Features of feeding
Seahorses are quite picky and require a special diet. Unlike other aquarium inhabitants, these animals need to be fed by hand, and they eat quite a lot. Regular live shrimp and/or brine shrimp are good foods and can be supplemented with frozen Mysis shrimp. Another very important point that should be taken into account is that you cannot skip even one day of feeding; you must be sure to provide fresh food every day.
The slow feeding of seahorses makes it difficult to keep them at home, and this circumstance must be weighed by potential breeders, since feeding seahorses can become a big problem for a working person or put a question mark on a vacation trip.
The seahorse slowly collects its thoughts before eating the offered shrimp, and the owner needs to be patient, gradually feeding the prescribed portion of 6-8 pieces of shrimp twice a day, which takes at least twenty minutes. It is convenient to feed the skates using a regular medical syringe or a glass tube with a rubber nozzle, which will allow you to retract the shrimp rejected or lost by the skate.
It is more practical to feed your pets using a small container placed at the bottom, for example, a glass saucer, around which several plastic or bamboo rods are placed so that the skates have something to cling to. Once you feed the smart creatures by putting shrimp in the feeder several times, the skates will figure out what’s going on and begin to wait for feeding, gathering in the designated place.
Feeding seahorses
Seahorses in an aquarium - a little about breeding
Adult seahorses are beautiful and somewhat aristocratic creatures, with indescribable grace and regal condescension in all their manifestations, including the process of eating. And while watching the adults is very interesting, breeding seahorses and tracking the development and growth of the babies is even more exciting.
Few people know that seahorses are monogamous, forming one pair for life, which in itself is surprising, because the last thing you can expect is a tender and devoted relationship from such small sea creatures.
After the death or removal of a partner, a lonely seahorse will not be in a hurry to find a soul mate and may remain alone for the rest of its life. With the first rays of the morning sun, the couple begins to perform a special sea “dance”, using not only body movements, but also characteristic sounds to communicate. During preparation for mating or during the process itself, these sounds intensify and become almost continuous.
These animals reproduce in an absolutely amazing way. The female lays eggs, which are then transferred to a special marsupial fold on the male’s tail, where they are fertilized and at some point, miniature copies of their parents emerge from the pouch in an incredible variety. Thus, the male bears the young, which is a unique feature of these creatures.
Seahorses are relatively easy to breed and raise in captivity, and under optimal conditions, it is possible that one day the aquarium will be filled with a whole “herd of horses.”
Birth of baby seahorses
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Seahorses have always surprised people with their unusual appearance. These amazing fish are one of the most ancient inhabitants of the seas and oceans. The first representatives of this fish species appeared approximately forty million years ago. They got their name because of their resemblance to the chess piece knight.
The structure of seahorses
The fish are small in size. The largest representative of this species has a body length of 30 centimeters and is considered a giant. Most seahorses have modest dimensions 10–12 centimeters.
There are also very miniature representatives of this species - dwarf fish. Their dimensions are only 13 millimeters. There are individuals measuring less than 3 millimeters.
As mentioned above, the name of these fish is determined by their appearance. In general, it is not easy to understand that this is a fish and not an animal at first glance, because the seahorse bears little resemblance to other inhabitants of the sea.
If in the vast majority of fish the main parts of the body are located in a straight line located in a horizontal plane, then in seahorses the opposite is true. They have basic body parts located in a vertical plane, and the head is at right angles to the body.
To date, scientists have described 32 species of these fish. All pipits prefer to live in shallow waters in warm seas. Since these fish are quite slow-moving, they value most coral reefs and coastal bottom, overgrown with algae, because there you can hide from enemies.
Seahorses swim very unusually. Their body stays vertical in the water while moving. This position is ensured by two swim bladders. The first is located along the entire body, and the second in the head area.
Moreover, the second bladder is much lighter than the abdominal one, which provides the fish vertical position in water when moving. In the water column, fish move due to the wave-like movements of their dorsal and pectoral fins. The vibration frequency of the fins is seventy beats per minute.
Seahorses also differ from most fish in that they do not have scales. Their body cover the bone plates, combined into belts. Such protection is quite heavy, but this weight does not in the least prevent the fish from floating freely in the water.
In addition, bone plates covered with spines serve as good protection. Their strength is so great that it is very difficult for a person to break even a dried skate shell with his hands.
Despite the fact that the seahorse's head is located at an angle of 90⁰ to the body, the fish can only move it in a vertical plane. In the horizontal plane, head movements are impossible. However, this does not create any review problems.
The fact is that this fish's eyes are not connected to each other. The horse can look with its eyes in different directions at the same time, so it is always aware of changes in the environment.
The seahorse's tail is very unusual. He twisted and very flexible. With its help, the fish clings to corals and algae when hiding.
At first glance, it seems that seahorses were not supposed to survive in harsh sea conditions: they slow and defenseless. In fact, the fish flourished until a certain time. The ability to mimicry helped them in this.
Evolutionary processes have led to the fact that seahorses can easily blend into the surrounding area. At the same time, they can change the color of their body either completely or partially. This is quite enough so that sea predators cannot notice the skates if they are hidden.
By the way, these sea inhabitants use the ability to change the color of their body in mating games. With the help of the “color music” of the body, males attract females.
Most people believe that these fish eat vegetation. This is a misconception. In fact, these sea fish, for all their seeming harmlessness and inactivity, are notorious predators. The basis of their diet is plankton. Artemia and shrimp- their favorite delicacy.
If you carefully examine the elongated snout of the skate, you will notice that it ends in a mouth that acts like a pipette. As soon as the fish notices the prey, it turns its mouth towards it and puffs out its cheeks. In fact, the fish sucks in its prey.
It is worth noting that these sea fish are quite voracious. They can hunt for 10 hours straight. During this time they destroy up to 3,500 crustaceans. And this is with a stigma length of no more than 1 millimeter.
Reproduction of skates
Seahorses are monogamous. If a couple has formed, it will not break up until the death of one of the partners, which is not uncommon in the living world. But what's really surprising is this birth of offspring by males, not females.
This happens as follows. During love games, the female, using a special papilla, introduces eggs into the male's brood pouch. Fertilization also occurs there. Then, males bear offspring for 20 and sometimes 40 days.
After this period, the already grown fry are born. The offspring are very similar to the parents, but the body of the fry transparent and colorless.
It is noteworthy that males continue to care for their offspring for some time after birth, which, however, very quickly becomes independent.
Keeping seahorses in an aquarium
You should know that these fish cannot be kept in a regular aquarium. Skates need special conditions to survive:
Do not forget that these fish are quite dirty, so the water in the aquarium must be well filtered.
As you remember, skates in nature like to hide from predators in algae and coral reefs. This means that you need to create similar conditions for them in the aquarium. To do this, you can use the following elements:
- Artificial corals.
- Seaweed.
- Artificial grottoes.
- Various stones.
An important requirement is that all elements should not have sharp edges that could damage the skates.
Feeding requirements
Since in nature these fish feed on crustaceans and shrimp, you will have to buy frozen Mysis shrimp for your pets. You need to feed the skates in the aquarium at least twice a day. Once a week you can pamper them with live food:
- krill;
- Artemia;
- live shrimp.
Seahorses cannot compete for food with aggressive fish. Therefore, the choice of comrades for them is limited. Mainly different types of snails: astrea, turbo, nerite, trochus, etc. You can also add a blue hermit crab to them.
One piece of final advice: get all the information you can about these sea creatures before you start your first school.