Seahorse Facts

Seahorses belong to the family of Syngnathidae. This word is a combination of two Greek words 'Syn' meaning fused, and 'Gnathus' which means jaws. Hippcampus is the genus that they belong to, along with their close relatives pipefishes. Hippos means horse and campus means sea-monster, in Greek.

There was a lot of confusion surrounding seahorses earlier on. Some books said they were insects, while some called them shellfish. Today, we know them as fish - complete fish, with fins, gills, and a swim bladder too. In appearance, the seahorse is different from other fish, it has a head like a horse, a tail like a monkey, a pouch like a kangaroo, and the eyes resemble a chameleon's.

Seahorses range from .6 to 14 inches (1.6 - 35 cm) in size, and are usually found in shallow, coastal tropical and temperate waters worldwide. The seahorse has camouflaging qualities, because of which it is difficult to spot!

Images of Seahorse

Following are some of the species of sea horse. Click on images to enlarge.


Facts about Seahorses

• International protection was provided to seahorses on May 15th, 2004.
• Seahorses differ in color, some are orange, red, yellow, green and even gray.
• Zebra stripes and spots are two patterns that seahorses come in.
• A herd is the term by which a group of seahorses are known as.
• Seahorses have an interior skeleton.
• Seahorses are unable to curl their tail backwards.
• Seahorses belong to the Teleost suborder or bony fish group.
• The average lifespan of a seahorse in the wild is estimated to be 1 to 5 years.
• Seahorses beat their dorsal fins back and forth to propel themselves through the water in an upright position.
• The pectoral fins are used to control steering and turning.
• They use their long snout to suck food like tiny fish, plankton and small shrimp. The food that seahorses eat, passes into their digestive systems very quickly as they do not have a stomach and teeth. As the digestion procedure in seahorses is so quick, they need to constantly eat to live.
• Daphnia, cyclops, larvae or mysids are small living things that seahorses feed on.
• A seahorse that is two weeks old can consume 3,000 to 4,000 brine shrimp in a day.
• Seahorses have a single mate for life. Every morning, they come together, dance, change their color, twirl around with linked tails, and then separate for the rest of the day.
• While mating, seahorses utter musical sounds.
• Mating is usually done under a full moon.
• Seahorses are the only animals in the entire animal kingdom in which the male has babies. The female seahorse deposits the eggs into the male's small pouch, these eggs are then fertilized by the male. The male carries the egg in the pouch till it hatches and then, mini seahorses are released in the water.

These were some facts about sea horses. The sea horses are useful in Asian traditional medicine and these little creatures are at risk because about twenty-five million of them are being traded around the world, in a span of a year. This has also resulted in the near-extinction of many species of sea horses.