Seahorse: interesting facts and photos. Seahorse (47 photos) What seahorses eat

One appearance of these fish sets up pleasant associations with childhood, toys and fairy tales. The horse swims in an upright position and tilts its head so gracefully that, looking at it, it is impossible not to compare it with some kind of small magic horse.

It is covered not with scales, but with bone plates. However, in his shell, he is so light and fast that he literally soars in the water, and his body shimmers with all colors - from orange to gray-blue, from lemon yellow to fiery red. By the brightness of the colors, it is just right to compare this fish with tropical birds.

Seahorses inhabit the coastal waters of tropical and subtropical seas. But they are also found in the North Sea, for example, off the southern coast of England. Choose quieter places; they don't like rough water.

Among them there are dwarfs the size of a little finger, and there are giants under thirty centimeters. The smallest species - Hippocampus zosterae (pygmy seahorse) - is found in the Gulf of Mexico. Its length does not exceed four centimeters, and the body is very hardy.

In the Black and Mediterranean Seas, you can meet the long-snouted, spotted Hippocampus guttulatus, whose length reaches 12-18 centimeters. The most famous representatives of the species Hippocampus kuda, which lives off the coast of Indonesia. Seahorses of this species (their length is 14 centimeters) are painted brightly and colorfully, some are speckled, others are striped. The largest seahorses are found near Australia.

Whether they are dwarfs or giants, seahorses resemble each other like brothers: a trusting look, capricious lips and an elongated "horse" muzzle. Their tail is hooked to the stomach, and horns adorn their heads. It is impossible to confuse these graceful and colorful fish, similar to jewelry or toys, with any inhabitant of the water element.

How does pregnancy proceed in males?

Even now, zoologists find it difficult to say how many species there are. seahorses. Possibly 30-32 species, although this figure is subject to change. The fact is that seahorses are difficult to classify. Their appearance is too changeable. Yes, and they know how to hide in such a way that a needle thrown into a haystack will envy.

When Amanda Vincent of Montreal's McGill University began studying seahorses in the late 1980s, she was annoyed: "At first, I couldn't even notice those subs." Masters of mimicry, in a moment of danger, they change their color, repeating the color of surrounding objects. Therefore, they are easily mistaken for algae. Many seahorses, like gutta-percha babies, can even change the shape of their bodies. They have small growths and nodules. Some seahorses can be difficult to distinguish from corals.

This plasticity, this “color music” of the body helps them not only to fool enemies, but also to seduce partners. The German zoologist Rüdiger Verhasselt shares his observations: “I had a pink-red male in my aquarium. I put a bright yellow female with a red dot on him. The male began to take care of the new fish and after a few days turned the same color as her - even red specks appeared.

In order to watch enthusiastic pantomimes and colorful confessions, one must go underwater early in the morning. In their confessions, they follow a funny etiquette: they nod their heads to greet a friend, while clinging to neighboring plants with their tails. Sometimes they freeze, getting closer in a “kiss”. Or whirl in a stormy love dance, and the males now and then inflate their stomachs.

The date is over - and the fish spread out to the sides. Adyu! See you next time! Seahorses usually live in monogamous pairs, loving each other to death, which they often have in the form of nets. After the death of a partner, his half misses, but after a few days or weeks he finds a roommate again. Seahorses settled in an aquarium suffer especially from the loss of a partner. And it happens that they die one after another, unable to bear the grief.

What is the secret of such affection? In the kindred of souls? Here's how biologists explain it: by regularly walking and caressing each other, seahorses synchronize their biological clocks. This helps them choose the most opportune moment for procreation. Then their meeting is delayed for several hours, or even days. They glow with excitement and whirl in a dance in which, as we remember, males inflate their stomachs. It turns out that the male has a wide fold on the abdomen, where the female lays her eggs.

Surprisingly, in seahorses, the male bears the offspring, having previously fertilized the eggs in the abdominal bag.

But this behavior is not as exotic as it might seem. Other species of fish are also known, for example, cichlids, in which males hatch caviar. But only in seahorses are we dealing with a process similar to pregnancy. fabric on inside the brood pouch in the male thickens, as in the uterus of mammals. This tissue becomes a kind of placenta; it binds the father's body to the embryos and nourishes them. This process is controlled by the hormone prolactin, which stimulates lactation in humans - the formation of mother's milk.

With the onset of pregnancy, walking through the underwater forests stops. The male keeps on a plot of about one square meter. In order not to compete with him in obtaining food, the female delicately swims to the side.

After a month and a half, "birth" occurs. The seahorse presses against the kelp stalk and inflates its belly again. Sometimes a whole day passes before the first fry slips out of the bag. Then the young will start to emerge in pairs, faster and faster, and soon the bag will expand so much that dozens of fry will swim out of it at the same time. Number of newborns different types Miscellaneous: Some seahorses breed up to 1600 babies, while others have only two fry.

Sometimes the "birth" is so difficult that the males die of exhaustion. In addition, if for some reason the embryos die, then the male who carried them will also die.

Evolution cannot explain the origin of the seahorse's reproductive functions. The whole childbearing process is too "unorthodox." Indeed, the structure of the seahorse appears to be a mystery if you try to explain it as the result of evolution. As one major expert said a few years ago: “In relation to evolution, the seahorse is in the same category as the platypus. Since it is a mystery that confuses and destroys all theories trying to explain the origin of this fish! Recognize the Divine Creator, and everything is explained.

What do seahorses do if they don't flirt and expect offspring? One thing is certain: they do not shine with success in swimming, which is not surprising given their constitution. They have; only three small fins: the dorsal helps to swim forward, and the two gill fins maintain vertical balance and serve as a rudder. In a moment of danger, seahorses can briefly speed up their movement, flapping their fins up to 35 times per second (some scientists even call the number "70"). They are much better at vertical maneuvers. By changing the volume of the swim bladder, these fish move up and down in a spiral.

However, most of the time, the seahorse hangs motionless in the water, catching its tail on algae, coral, or even the neck of a relative. It seems that he is ready to hang around doing nothing all day. However, with visible laziness, he manages to catch a lot of prey - tiny crustaceans and fry. It has only recently been possible to observe how this happens.

The seahorse does not rush for prey, but waits until it swims up to it. Then he draws in the water, swallowing careless small fry. Everything happens so fast that you can't see it with the naked eye. However, diving enthusiasts say that, when approaching a seahorse, you sometimes hear smacking. The appetite of this fish is amazing: barely born, the seahorse manages to swallow about four thousand miniature shrimps in the first ten hours of life.

In total, he is destined to live, if he's lucky, four or five years. Enough time to leave behind millions of descendants. It seems that with such numbers, the prosperity of seahorses is ensured. However, it is not. Out of a thousand fry, only two survive on average. All the rest themselves fall into someone's mouth. However, in this whirlwind of births and deaths, seahorses have been afloat for forty million years. Only human intervention can destroy this species.

According to the message World Fund wildlife, the number of seahorses is rapidly declining. Thirty species of these fish are included in the Red Book, that is, almost all species known to science. The ecology is primarily responsible for this. The oceans are turning into a world dump. Its inhabitants degenerate and die.

Half a century ago, the Chesapeake Bay was a narrow, long bay off the coast of American states Maryland and Virginia (its length reaches 270 kilometers) - was considered a real paradise for seahorses. Now you can hardly find them there. Alison Scarratt, director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, estimates that ninety percent of the algae in the bay have died in that half-century, due to water pollution. But algae were natural environment seahorse habitats.

Another reason for the decline is the massive capture of seahorses off the coast of Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. According to Amanda Vincent, at least 26 million of these fish are harvested every year. A small part of them then ends up in aquariums, and most die. For example, from these cute fish, drying them, they make souvenirs - brooches, key rings, belt buckles. By the way, for the sake of beauty, they bend their tail back, giving the body the shape of the letter S.

However, most of the seahorses caught - about twenty million according to the World Wildlife Fund - end up with pharmacists in China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. The largest transshipment point for the sale of this "medical raw material" is Hong Kong. From here it is sold at thirty superfluous countries including India and Australia. Here, a kilo of seahorses costs about $1,300.

From these dried fish, crushed and mixed with other substances, for example, with the bark of trees, drugs are prepared that are just as popular in Japan, Korea, China as we do - aspirin or analgin. They help with asthma, coughs, headaches and especially impotence. IN Lately this Far Eastern "Viagra" became popular in Europe.

However, even ancient authors knew that medicines could be prepared from seahorses. So, Pliny the Elder (24-79) wrote that in case of hair loss, one should use an ointment prepared from a mixture of dried seahorses, marjoram oil, resin and lard. In 1754, the English Gentlemen's Magazine advised breastfeeding mothers to take seahorse extract "for better milk flow." Certainly, old recipes may cause a smile, but spends the same now World Organization health research " healing properties seahorse."

Meanwhile, Amanda Vincent and a number of biologists are advocating a complete ban on the uncontrolled harvesting and trade of seahorses, trying to end predatory fishing, as whaling was done in its time. The situation is that in Asia, seahorses are caught mainly by poachers. To end this, the researcher created the Project Seahorse organization back in 1986, which is trying to protect seahorses in Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines, as well as to establish a civilized trade in them. Things are especially successful on the Philippine island of Khandayan.

The inhabitants of the local village of Handumon have been harvesting seahorses for centuries. However, in just a decade, from 1985 to 1995, their catches dropped by almost 70 percent. Therefore, the seahorse rescue program proposed by Amanda Vincent was perhaps the only hope for the fishermen.

To begin with, it was decided to create a protected area with a total area of ​​thirty-three hectares, where fishing was completely banned. There, all the seahorses were counted and even numbered, putting a collar on them. From time to time, divers looked into this water area and checked if the “lazy homebodies”, seahorses, had swum away from here.

We agreed that males with full brood bags will not be caught outside the protected area. If they were caught in the net, they were thrown back into the sea. In addition, environmentalists have tried to re-plant the mangroves and underwater forests of algae - the natural shelters of these fish.

Since then, the number of seahorses and other fish in the vicinity of Khandumon has stabilized. Especially a lot of seahorses inhabit the protected area. In turn, in other Philippine villages, making sure that the neighbors are doing well, they also follow this example. Three more protected areas have been created in which seahorses are bred.

They are also grown on special farms. However, there are problems here. So, scientists do not yet know what diet is best for seahorses.

In some zoos - in Stuttgart, Berlin, Basel, as well as in the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the California Aquarium, the breeding of these fish is going well. Perhaps they can be saved.

In the seas surrounding Russia, there are only two types of seahorses (although species diversity skates and great, just in different seas There are 32 species of seahorses in the world. These are the Black Sea seahorse and the Japanese seahorse. The first lives in Black and Seas of Azov, and the second in Japanese.

“Our” seahorses are small and do not have chic long outgrowths all over their bodies, like, for example, a rag-picker that lives in warm seas and masquerading as thickets of sargasso algae. Their carapace has a modest protective function: it is very strong and usually painted to match the color of the background.

The intention of the Creator is clearly and clearly manifested in the seahorse. But the fossil record presents another problem for those who believe in evolution. To defend the idea that the sea horse is the product of evolution over millions of years, supporters of this theory need fossils showing the gradual development of a lower form of animal life into a more complex form of a sea horse. But much to the chagrin of evolutionists, “no fossilized seahorses have been discovered.”

As with many creatures that fill the seas, skies and land, there is no link for the seahorse that can connect it with any other form of life. Like all major types of living creatures, the complex seahorse was created suddenly, as the book of Genesis tells us.

Sea Horse- an unusual animal resembling a small magic horse ranging in size from 1.5 to 30 centimeters. It has family ties with needle fish. An inhabitant of salty tropical waters is also found off the coast of Eastern Canada and Great Britain. Some species exist in fresh waters. The sea dweller is of constant interest to children and adults.

Appearance

Sea Horse - Interesting Facts for children about appearance. The movement involves a small fin on the back, oscillating up to 35 times per second. Rowing two gill fins maintains vertical balance. They are weak swimmers, separate dwarf species moving at a speed of one and a half meters per hour. The upward and downward spiral movement provides a change in the volume of the swim bladder.

They are able to change color depending on the surrounding plants, therefore they are invisible in aquatic environment. The body is covered with bony armor instead of scales. Like tropical birds, they have a rich color palette with stripes and specks. They are difficult to distinguish from corals.

Observation is carried out by a pair of eyes that can look in opposite directions.

Beautiful representatives of fish breathe with the help of gills, have a swim bladder located throughout the body, which makes it possible to vertically position themselves in the water.

A peculiar tail helps to attach to the fins and make long journeys "on horseback" on other fish.

Behavior

Interesting Seahorse Facts - Behavior. Due to the peculiarities of the digestive system, they need constant nutrition, which enters the body with water. Food is not only plankton, crustaceans, shrimps, larvae, but also small fish. There are no teeth and stomach, absorption occurs through the proboscis. They do not chase prey, but patiently wait for it to sail by itself, so for comfortable life need a little flow.

Life expectancy is limited to 4-5 years, but they manage to leave a million offspring.

They don't do well in aquariums. The reason is an unusual environment, susceptibility to stress. They need a lot of small living creatures for food: more than 3 thousand crustaceans and shrimps per day. Without food, they quickly die from exhaustion.

The female transfers the eggs from her body to a special bag to the male. Thus, males carry offspring for 1.5 months. This is one of the few species when dad is worn with a child. The number of fry ranges from 1600 to 2, depending on the species. Born cubs immediately go on an independent journey.

The main enemies of the skate are crabs, penguins, rays and other hungry predators. Almost the entire body is made up of bones, scales, and spines. Few want to feast on such prey.

Red Book

For several years, the unique fish has been a symbol sea ​​power Northern Fleet. It was displayed on the coat of arms of Zaozersk, a city in Murmansk region. Then the image of the skate was replaced with a dolphin.

In the coastal waters of Russia, there are 2 species of fish that live in the Black, Azov and Japanese Seas.

The Red Book lists 30 species of animals out of 32. Their habitats are still being polluted, and numerous jellyfish destroy their nutrient plankton. The reason for the mass capture is a beautiful appearance.

One out of a hundred fry is able to grow to maturity. The causes of extinction are related to economic activity of people. Fish are caught by the Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians for pseudo-medical purposes (of course, these creatures cannot cure anyone) and making souvenirs from dried exhibits.

Seahorse liver and eyes are considered a healthy delicacy and are served in expensive restaurants. Fried skates on sticks offer Chinese cuisine.

The breeding of these creatures is successfully carried out in the zoos of Berlin, Stuttgart, Basel, in the California and the National Aquarium of Baltimore.

The Black Sea seahorse is a native inhabitant of the Black Sea, having formed into a separate species about 20 million years ago. Nature rewarded him with an original appearance, and in the course of evolution, unique abilities and skills appeared that were inaccessible to other inhabitants. underwater world. Human actions have put skates on the brink of extinction, forcing biologists to add them to the Red Book.

Description

In biological encyclopedias, the Black Sea seahorse is named Hippocampus guttulatus (long-snouted seahorse) and belongs to the class of ray-finned fish. Its upper part is similar to a chess "horse", and the elongated tubular mouth-pump (one third of the length of the head) only enhances the resemblance. The head is located perpendicular to the body and can move up / down, which other types of fish are not able to do. The eyes work independently of each other, and the viewing angle reaches 300 degrees.

The body of the seahorse is elongated and slightly flattened laterally and is constantly in an upright position due to a double air bladder, the upper section of which is smaller than the lower one. It ends with a long and flexible tail without a blade-fin, capable of curling into a ring. They skates cling to algae, hiding from danger or attacking prey from an ambush.

Sea Horse
Photo: http://zapcity.fr

For protective purposes, the body of the skate is covered with horny plates, spikes of various lengths and growths that serve additional means camouflage in thickets of algae. The shell is of high strength and does not lose its properties even after drying. Having a brownish-yellow color with small white dots, they are able to change color, adjusting to the environment.

Seahorses swim vertically and not very fast, making up to 70 “strokes” per second with their dorsal fin, helping themselves with oscillatory movements of the body and tail. Under the head there are two more small fins, corresponding in their functions to the pectoral fins of fish of "standard" forms.

Male seahorses are usually larger and grow up to 20-21 centimeters, females up to 17-18. The usual life expectancy does not exceed 4-5 years.

Habitat and food

The seahorse lives in the waters of the Black, Azov and mediterranean sea, off the eastern coast Atlantic Ocean, from the Netherlands to the African coast. It chooses places with a depth of up to 20 meters, with the obligatory presence of underwater vegetation, where it spends about 90% of its life, setting up ambushes and hiding from predators. Prefers water without strong currents.

They mostly live in small groups of 3-5 individuals, almost never gathering in large numbers. But they can also create pairs for life, especially when living in artificial conditions of aquariums. At the same time, if one of the partners dies, the second mourns very much, which is noticeable by the change in behavior, and may also die.

The seahorse feeds with the help of a mouth-pump, drawing food along with water at great speed, from distances up to 4 centimeters. He eats small bottom inhabitants of the sea, crustaceans, fish fry, plankton, which he catches from ambush in algae. It is worth noting the appetite of animals that “lunch” at least 5 times a day and are able to do this up to 10 hours a day.

An interesting fact: in seahorses, males, not females, bear and give birth to offspring.

Spawning

Unlike most animals, males are responsible for the reproduction of seahorses, who bear and “feed” the eggs, give birth to offspring. At the same time, the females carefully choose the future father, and their mating dances may last 3 days. At this time, the skates swim in shallow water (up to 4 meters), swim together, periodically rising to the surface, exchange songs from click sounds, and even “kiss”, touching their pump mouths.

When the prelude ends, the female lays eggs (depending on size, from 10 to 650 eggs). For this, an egg pouch-pocket is provided in the lower part of the male abdominal cavity, penetrated circulatory system to supply oxygen to the developing larvae. After filling (sometimes the pipit accepts eggs from several females), its seam closes and overgrows, and the “father” carries out internal fertilization of the eggs.

The gestation of eggs takes about 4-5 weeks. All this time, the seahorse is in shallow water, without leaving a square meter of its “personal” area, where it hunts and hides. This is his territory, where even “frivolous” females leave to provide the “nursing father” with enough food.

After the formation of fry, completely ready for independent life, difficult childbirth begins - the male can wriggle up to 2 days, trying to open the birth bag. Sometimes it ends with his death. If everything went well, the little skates crawl out of the pocket and rise to the surface for a breath of air (to fill the air bubble), then return to the "daddy". For some time they live next to him, hiding in a "bag" in case of danger, but soon they swim away and never return.

Use of seahorses

Seahorses are used by man in several areas, one of which is aesthetic in nature. Vacationers willingly buy these original species of animals for souvenirs. Black Sea coast, or try to "domesticate" them by planting them in an aquarium. In the second case, death is also almost inevitable, since skates do not tolerate changes well, especially if their “half” is left in the sea.

Another area in which seahorses are widely used is ethnoscience especially among the peoples of Asia. According to traditional healers, drugs from animals help in the treatment of baldness, skin diseases, atherosclerosis, cough and asthma. Especially popular means in the treatment of impotence and disorders of sexual functions. The ability to bind harmful carcinogens and toxic substances in the human body is also noted, which helps in the prevention of cancer.

Hello, my dear young readers and wise parents! In the category "Projects" new topic! ShkolaLa helps prepare a message about the seahorse. Whatever class you are in elementary school, a report about this inhabitant of the sea will be an indispensable highlight in the lesson of the world around. Read on and you'll understand why.

Lesson plan:

What kind of animal is a seahorse?

This aquatic inhabitant with an outstanding appearance by no means looks 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 why he was probably so nicknamed.

The body is crocheted, the back is a hump, the abdomen is forward. Yes, and his head is that of a horse, and his mouth extended into a tube resembles a muzzle, and when he moves, he leans on a tail twisted into a ring.

Why not a horse in miniature!

This fish is also called a dragon, since many species really resemble this fairy tale character with their wings spread out 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 dwarf, it is only 2 centimeters tall. Almost 30 species are listed in the Red Book.

This is interesting! Research scientists have proven that the closest relative of the seahorse is the needlefish, from which he separated as much as 23 million years ago! Today, numerous long spikes have been preserved from the progenitor of the fish.

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

This is interesting! Seahorses are great at playing hide-and-seek and master the art of camouflage to perfection. They have special cells - chromatophores, which color the horse under its environment. At the same time, you can see the water chameleon only by the nose sticking out of the algae.

Most often, miniature horses are brown, yellowish or green, but those that live among corals are red and purple. Like a Christmas tree toy hang in sea ​​depths such skates, catching 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. His body is located vertically in the water. The swim bladder, which runs 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 runs, rising up, and also plunging to the depth. If something happens to the skate's bubble, he has no choice but to lie still until he 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 them.

But it cannot row with its tail. To do this, there is a movable fin on the back and a pair of pectoral fins.

Given this structure, the seahorse swimmer is no good, and he strives to compete, spending most of his time in a hovering state, staring around.

What's on the Seahorse's Menu?

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

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

This is interesting! These fish have no teeth or stomach. Their digestive organs are a direct-flow engine that constantly needs to be refueled.

Tiny horses can hang around waiting for food for up to 10 hours, they don’t even need to hunt much, sit in one place, and dinner floats by. Moreover, as we have already understood, he is no swimmer. So a lazy glutton eats up to 3.5 thousand crustaceans per day.

pregnant dads

Yes, we were not mistaken! This is just the only case when pregnancy is not women's business. In seahorses, males carry offspring! For this, the male has a bag on his abdomen that looks like a kangaroo, where eggs are laid.

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

This is interesting! The seahorse is the only fish that has a neck.

But a frivolous mother all these days visits a friend only in the morning, carelessly sailing away after five minutes of a date until the next day on her own business. Or maybe just forget about it!

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

Do seahorses have enemies?

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

However, the biggest danger for him is a person. The unique appearance of the fish and its beneficial features became the reason for the mass catch.

Seahorses are caught for souvenirs, for preparing expensive oriental dishes and for medical 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 in different directions. And their organs of vision can look like this: one forward, and the other to control 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, kangaroo pouch, spinning chameleon eyes and prehensile monkey tail.

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

See you soon on the ShkolaLa blog and in the Projects section

Success in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich

Many unusual and interesting creatures live in the depths of the sea, among which seahorses deserve special attention.

Seahorses, or scientifically hippocampuses, are small bony fish of the family sea ​​needles. Today there are about 30 species that differ in size and appearance. "Growth" ranges from 2 to 30 centimeters, and the colors are very diverse.

The skates do not have scales, but they are protected by a hard bone shell. To bite through and digest such "clothes" can only land crab, therefore, skates usually do not arouse interest in underwater predators, and they hide in such a way that any needle in a haystack will envy.

Another one interesting feature skates in the eyes: like a chameleon, they can move independently of each other.

How is the fish in the water? No, it's not about them.

Unlike other inhabitants of the sea, skates swim in an upright position, this is possible due to the presence of a large longitudinal swim bladder. By the way, they are very inept swimmers. A small dorsal fin makes fairly fast movements, but this does not give much speed, but pectoral fins serve mainly as rudders. Most of the time, the skate hangs motionless in the water, catching the algae with its tail.

Every day is stress

Seahorses live in tropical and subtropical seas and prefer clear, calm waters. The greatest danger for them is a strong pitching, which can sometimes lead to complete exhaustion. Seahorses are generally very susceptible to stress. In an unfamiliar environment, they do not get along well, even if there is enough food, in addition, the loss of a partner can be the cause of death.

There is not much food

The seahorse has a primitive digestive system, there are no teeth or a stomach, therefore, in order not to die of hunger, the creature has to constantly eat. According to the way of feeding, skates are predators. When it's time for a snack (almost always), they cling to algae with their tails and, like vacuum cleaners, suck surrounding water containing plankton.

Unusual family

Family relations among skates are also very peculiar. The second half is always chosen by the female. When she sees a suitable candidate, she invites him to dance. Several times the steam rises to the surface and falls again. the main task male - to be hardy and keep up with a girlfriend. If he slows down, the capricious lady will immediately find herself another gentleman, but if the test is passed, the couple proceeds to mate.

Seahorses are monogamous, meaning they choose a mate for life and even sometimes swim with their tails tied together. The male bears the offspring, and by the way, these are the only creatures on the planet who have a “male pregnancy”.

The mating dance can last about 8 hours. In the process, the female lays the eggs in a special bag on the male's abdomen. It is there that miniature seahorses will form for the next 50 days.

From 5 to 1500 cubs will be born, only 1 out of 100 will live to adulthood. It seems not enough, but this figure is actually one of the highest among fish.

Why are seahorses dying out?

Seahorses are small peaceful fish that have suffered greatly because of their bright and unusual appearance. People catch them for various purposes: for making gifts, souvenirs, or for preparing an expensive exotic dish that costs about $ 800 per serving. In Asia, dried seahorses are used to make medicines. 30 species out of 32 existing are listed in the Red Book.