Seahorse short story. A mysterious creature - a seahorse. Let's get to know each other better. Feeding requirements

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

Lesson plan:

What kind of animal is a seahorse?

This aquatic resident with an extraordinary appearance does not at all look 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 nicknamed that.

The body is crocheted, the back is humped, the abdomen is forward. Yes, and he has a horse’s head, and his mouth, elongated into a tube, resembles a muzzle, and when he moves he relies on a tail curled into a ring.

Why not a miniature horse!

This fish is also called a dragon, since many species really resemble this one fairy tale character with their wings spread to the sides, except that there are not three heads, but only one!

There are up to 50 species in total seahorses, the dimensions of which can be up to 30 centimeters. But the smallest of them is a dwarf, he is only 2 centimeters tall. Almost 30 species are listed in the Red Book.

This is interesting! Scientific research has proven that the closest relative seahorse is the needle fish, from which it separated as much as 23 million years ago! Today, the fish has preserved numerous long spines from its ancestor.

Where can you see a seahorse? He 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 excellent at playing hide and seek and master the art of camouflage to perfection. They have special cells - chromatophores, which color the skate to match its environment. At the same time, you can only see an aquatic chameleon by its nose sticking out of the algae.

Most often, miniature horses are brown, yellowish or green in color, but those that live among corals are red and purple. Like a Christmas tree decoration they hang in sea ​​depths such tips, caught by 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. Its body is located vertically in the water. The swim bladder running 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 cruises, rising upward and also plunging to depth. If something happens to the skate's bladder, it has no choice but to lie still until it 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 it.

But it cannot row using its tail. For this purpose, there is a movable fin on the back and a pair of pectoral fins.

Given this structure, the seahorse is a poor swimmer, and he strives to compete, spending most of his time in a suspended state, looking around.

What's on the seahorse's menu?

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

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

This is interesting! These fish have neither teeth nor stomach. Their digestive organs are like a ramjet engine that constantly needs to be refueled.

Tiny horses can hang around for up to 10 hours waiting for food, they don’t really need to hunt, just sit in one place and lunch floats by. Moreover, as we already understood, he is not much of a swimmer. So in a day a lazy glutton eats up to 3.5 thousand crustaceans.

Pregnant dads

Yes, yes, we were not mistaken! This is exactly the only case when pregnancy is not women's business. In seahorses, males bear their offspring! For this purpose, the male has a kangaroo-like pouch on his abdomen, where the eggs are laid.

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

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

But all these days, the frivolous mother visits her friend only in the morning, blithely sailing away after five minutes of the meeting until the next day to go about her business. Or maybe forget about him completely!

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

Do seahorses have enemies?

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

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

Seahorses are caught for souvenirs, for preparing expensive oriental dishes and for medicinal purposes.

This is interesting! When searching for food, as well as for vigilance, these fish manage to look with both eyes simultaneously in different directions. And their visual organs can look like this: one is forward, and the other controls 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, the pouch of a kangaroo, the rotating eyes of a chameleon and the prehensile tail of a monkey.

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

See you again on the “ShkolaLa” blog and in the “Projects” section

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich

The 16th-century French naturalist Guillaume Rondelet, one of the first to publish a fundamental work on marine fish, described the seahorse as a cross between insects and primitive coelenterates. It is not surprising, because this creature amazes with its unusual appearance. But modern scientists have come to the conclusion that seahorses are still fish. Indeed, they breathe through gills, have a swim bladder that allows them to control buoyancy, and are able to spawn. But the seahorse is a very special fish, and the more a person studies it, the more interesting facts he learns:

The seahorse is a fish, but it has no scales. The bodies of these creatures are covered with hard plates that form a kind of exoskeleton. This makes them unattractive prey for a number of predators. By the way, they also have an internal skeleton.


Seahorses come in different sizes, from as tiny as a pine nut to as large as a banana. Largest representatives of this tribe belong to the species Hippocampus abdominalis, also known as the pot-bellied seahorse. They can reach 35 cm and live in the waters of South Australia and New Zealand. The smallest of known species called a seahorse Satomi(Hippocampus satomiae), it was described by biologists in 2008. Its size is only one and a half centimeters, and its place of residence is the waters of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.


Today there are approximately 54 species of seahorses around the world, although there is no consensus on their number. Identifying these animals is a very difficult task because individuals of the same species can vary greatly in appearance. In addition, researchers continue to find new species.

It doesn't matter if seahorses swim. The pygmy seahorse holds the record for slowness, developing “fantastic” speed: 1.5 meters per hour. It is not surprising that skates spend most of their time standing “anchored,” that is, clinging to something stationary with their flexible tail.

But seahorses are avid hitchhikers. They can travel long distances by clinging to floating algae and debris. This allows you to save energy, but during a storm, travelers are constantly at risk of being thrown ashore along with their unreliable watercraft.


Seahorses move using a small fin on their back that flutters up to 35 times per second. Pectoral fins, which are even smaller in size, are located closer to the back of the head and serve purely for steering. These fish are very maneuverable: they can easily move up, down, forward and backward.

Seahorses have no teeth and no stomach. Food passes through them digestive system so fast that they have to eat almost continuously. These creatures are capable of eating more 3000 microscopic crustaceans per day. Left without food, they can quickly die from exhaustion.

The graceful faces of these animals, from which they get their name, act like a vacuum cleaner pipe. When prey swims nearby, the skate sharply sucks it in. If the prey is too large, the seahorse's mouth may expand slightly.


Seahorses' eyes operate independently of each other, allowing them to monitor the space around them without moving or revealing their presence. This means they can look forward and backward at the same time! This feature is very useful because these animals hunt using their vision. And theirs is excellent.

These underwater inhabitants are specialists in camouflage. Some species can change their body color to blend in with environment, while others are already born indistinguishable from a branch of coral or a fragment of algae.

Seahorses can communicate with each other by making clicking or smacking sounds. Most often this happens during eating and courtship.


Seahorses have a complex and lengthy courtship ritual. The male can woo the female for several days. As if dancing, they copy each other’s movements for several hours or intertwine their tails. Already established couples can “dance” every day, strengthening their bond with each other. Those types of skates that are able to change color use this opportunity during mating games.

Some species of seahorses are monogamous, while others only stay together during mating season.

The most amazing feature of these animals is their unique method of reproduction. The female spawns like a regular fish, but the eggs are placed in a special sac located on the front of the male's body. He fertilizes her and carries her in his rounded belly. Daddy's gestation period varies from 14 days to 4 weeks. The number of eggs can range from 50-150 for small species and up to 1500 for larger ones. Childbirth is accompanied by contractions and can last up to 12 hours.


Newborn seahorses look like miniature versions of their parents, do not need their help and immediately go to independent travel. During the first weeks of their lives, they drift aimlessly along with the plankton and are vulnerable to many predators. Less than one in a hundred escapes the fate of becoming someone's prey and reaches adulthood.

Many people associate the seahorse with southern seas and hot countries, but these are not such pampered animals. They are found not only in the tropics, but also off the coast of Great Britain and Eastern Canada. Even in Black and Seas of Azov, where the water is not salty enough for most tropical fish, you can meet one of the species of seahorse.


The average lifespan of seahorses is between 4 – 6 years. However, many species are endangered due to overfishing. In particular, more than 20 million pipits are caught annually for the needs of traditional Chinese medicine. Other factors that negatively affect their numbers include ocean pollution and the degradation of coral reefs.

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 the brothers of others interesting fish- sea needles. In total, 50 species of seahorses are known, several of the most large species called sea dragons.

Herbal 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 stems 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.

Most small view- the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) is only 2 cm long. It is completely indistinguishable from coral branches.

These fish live in tropical and subtropical zones. Their range encircles the entire Earth. 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. The smallest crustaceans they track, 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 the small size of the skates big fans eat and can indulge in gluttony for up to 10 hours a day.

Seahorses are monogamous fish, they live married couples, 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. Fertility different types 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.

The seahorse is a small fish, which is a representative of the Spine family from the order Stickleback. Research has shown that the seahorse is a highly modified pipefish. Today the seahorse is a rather rare creature. In this article you will find a description and photo of a seahorse and learn a lot of new and interesting things about this extraordinary creature.

The seahorse looks very unusual and its body shape resembles a chess piece of a horse. The seahorse fish has many long bony spines and various leathery projections on its body. Thanks to this body structure, the seahorse appears unnoticed among the algae and remains inaccessible to predators. The seahorse looks amazing, it has small fins, its eyes rotate independently of each other, and its tail is curled into a spiral. The seahorse looks diverse, because it can change the color of its scales.

The seahorse looks small, its size depends on the species and varies from 4 to 25 cm. In the water, the seahorse swims vertically, unlike other fish. This is due to the fact that the seahorse’s swim bladder consists of an abdominal and a head part. The head bladder is larger than the abdominal one, which allows the seahorse to maintain an upright position when swimming.

Now the seahorse is becoming increasingly rare and is on the verge of extinction due to a rapid decline in numbers. There are many reasons for the disappearance of the seahorse. The main one is the destruction by humans of both the fish itself and its habitats. Off the coast of Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, pipits are being caught en masse. Exotic appearance and the bizarre shape of the body became the reason that people began to make gift souvenirs from them. For beauty, the tail is artificially arched and the body is given the shape of the letter “S”, but in nature skates do not look like that.

Another reason that contributes to the decline in the seahorse population is that they are a delicacy. Gourmets highly value the taste of these fish, especially the eyes and liver of seahorses. In a restaurant, the cost of one serving of such a dish costs $800.

In total, there are about 50 species of seahorses, 30 of which are already listed in the Red Book. Luckily, seahorses are very fertile and can produce over a thousand young at a time, keeping the seahorses from going extinct. Seahorses are bred in captivity, but this fish is very demanding to keep. One of the most extravagant seahorses is the rag-picker seahorse, which you can see in the photo below.

The seahorse lives in tropical and subtropical seas. The seahorse fish lives mainly at shallow depths or near the shore and leads a sedentary lifestyle. The seahorse lives in dense thickets of algae and other marine vegetation. It attaches itself to plant stems or corals with its flexible tail, remaining almost invisible due to its body covered with various projections and spines.

The seahorse fish changes body color to completely blend in with its environment. In this way, the seahorse successfully camouflages itself not only from predators, but also while foraging for food. The seahorse is very bony, so few people want to eat it. The main hunter of the seahorse is the large land crab. The seahorse can travel long distances. To do this, it attaches its tail to the fins various fish and stays on them until the “free taxi” swims into the algae thickets.

What do seahorses eat?

Seahorses eat crustaceans and shrimp. Seahorses eat very interestingly. The tubular stigma, like a pipette, draws prey into the mouth along with water. Seahorses eat quite a lot and hunt almost the whole day, taking short breaks of a couple of hours.

Seahorses eat about 3 thousand planktonic crustaceans per day. But seahorses eat almost any food, as long as it does not exceed the size of their mouth. The seahorse fish is a hunter. With its flexible tail, the seahorse clings to the algae and remains motionless until the prey is in the required proximity to the head. After which the seahorse absorbs water along with food.

How do seahorses reproduce?

Seahorses reproduce quite in an unusual way, because their fry is carried by the male. Seahorses often have monogamous pairs. Mating season seahorses are an amazing sight. Couple about to conclude marriage, is held together by its tails and dances in the water. During the dance, the skates press against each other, after which the male opens a special pocket in the abdominal area, into which the female throws eggs. Subsequently, the male bears offspring for a month.

Seahorses reproduce quite often and produce large offspring. A seahorse gives birth to one thousand or more young at a time. The fry are born an absolute copy of the adults, only very tiny. The babies that are born are left to their own devices. In nature, a seahorse lives for about 4-5 years.

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Avid aquarists like to breed a wide variety of exotic fish and bright, unusual animals that attract with their non-standard, bizarre proportions and interesting, sometimes playful behavior. And none, and can’t even compare with the most colorful inhabitants sea ​​waters - seahorses.

The seahorse is one of the most unusual representatives of the aquarium world. Despite their bizarre shapes, all seahorses belong to the subgroup of bony marine fish, the spiny fish order.

This is interesting! There are only one males on the planet, who themselves bear their future offspring - seahorses.

If you take a closer look, you yourself will notice the striking resemblance of these small bony fish to a chess piece. And how interestingly the seahorse moves in the water, bends all over and very proudly carries its magnificently built head!

Despite the apparent difficulty, keeping a seahorse is practically the same as keeping any other inhabitants of the aquarium world. But, before purchasing one or several individuals, you should take into account many factors, without which the life of this bright and interesting “sea needle” may not be as long as we would like.

Seahorses: interesting facts

The existence of the seahorse was known a thousand years before our era. In ancient Roman mythology, it is said that the god of water streams and the sea, Neptune, whenever he went to check his possessions, harnessed “ sea ​​needle", very similar to a horse. Therefore, for sure, Lord Neptune cannot be huge if he moved on small thirty-centimeter skates. But, seriously, it is very rare in nature today to find spinyfish that reach 30 cm in length. Most “pipits” barely reach twelve centimeters.

In our time, it is already known about the existence of fossilized remains of the ancestors of the seahorse. In the course of a study at the genetic level, scientists revealed the similarity of the seahorse with the needle fish.

What are they like - seahorses

Today, marine aquarists keep seahorses, which range in length from 12 millimeters to twenty centimeters. However, most of all, aquarists prefer to care for Hippocampus erectus, those. standard seahorses.

Seahorses were specifically named this way because the head, chest, and neck are completely similar to horse parts of the body. At the same time, they differ from fish in a different physique. The horse's head of these individuals is positioned completely differently than that of fish - in relation to the body, it is located at ninety degrees. What else is interesting is these sea ​​fish They have eyes looking in different directions.

And these small, cute sea creatures swim not horizontally, but vertically and have scales all over their bodies, strong armor - colorful, iridescent bone plates. The shell of these sea needle-shaped individuals is “steel”, so that it cannot be penetrated.

I would also like to mention the interesting property of the twisted, long tail of a sea fish in the shape of a spiral. If seahorses feel that there is a predator nearby, they very quickly run into shelter, algae, which they skillfully cling to with their spiral tail and manage to hide.

This is interesting! Feeling that danger threatens, sea fish - skates cling with the help of their long tails for corals or algae and remain for a long time motionless, hanging upside down.

Despite such a cute appearance, seahorses are classified as predatory fish, as they feed on shrimp and sea crustaceans.

The seahorse has the ability to camouflage itself. They mimic like chameleons, taking on the color of the place they stop at. Basically, these marine fish like to hide where there are richer, brighter colors to avoid predators. And also with the help bright colors, a male, attracts the attention of a female, which he really liked. To please the female, he can even “put on” her color.

Seahorses, despite their numbers, are considered rare fish, therefore their thirty subspecies are listed in the Red Book. The problem is that from year to year the world's oceans turn into a universally polluted, garbage "dump", which is why corals and algae die en masse, and these photosynthetic organisms are vital for seahorses.

And also, the seahorse itself has long been a valuable animal. The Chinese catch these fish in large numbers because they believe that they cure any disease. In many European countries dead seahorses automatically become raw materials for the manufacture of various souvenirs.

Keeping seahorses at home

Bony seahorses are unusual, bright, funny and very beautiful creatures. Maybe, feeling their beauty and greatness, they become very “capricious” when they find themselves in captivity. And to make these fish feel good, even experienced aquarists should try very hard. It should be created for them natural environment habitat so that animals feel the same there as in sea ​​water. It is very important to keep track temperature conditions aquariums. Seahorses will feel comfortable in cool water with a temperature of twenty-three to twenty-five degrees Celsius, but no more. During hot periods, be sure to install a split system above the aquarium; you can simply turn on the fan. The hot air can suffocate these little creatures even in warm water.

Before placing purchased skates in an aquarium with regular water, check its quality: it should not contain phosphates or ammonia. The maximum concentration of nitrates in water is allowed at a level of ten ppm. Also, don’t forget to install your favorite seahorse algae and corals in the aquarium. Surface grottoes made of artificial material will also look beautiful.

So, you have taken care of the seahorse house. Taking care of nutrition will also be important for them, because these beautiful inhabitants sea ​​people like to eat a lot of meat and exotic foods often. A seahorse should eat at least four to five times a day, receiving meat from shrimp and crustaceans. To do this, you can buy frozen invertebrate molluscs and crustaceans. Seahorses love Mysis shrimp and will happily eat moths and even daphnia.

• All seahorses suffer from limited gas exchange due to low gill efficiency. This is why constant water filtration and oxygen supply is a vital process for seahorses.
• Seahorses do not have stomachs, so in order to maintain themselves normally and not lose energy balance, they need a lot of food.
• Seahorses do not have scales, which is why they are easily susceptible to any infections, especially bacterial ones. An ecosystem moderator in a confined space should frequently inspect the seahorse's body, which may be damaged.
• Seahorses have interesting mouths - proboscis, with the help of which these creatures suck up caught prey with such speed that they can swallow a dozen spineless mollusks at a time.

Reproduction of seahorses

Seahorses are skilled cavaliers! They begin their courtship with mating dance, which is shown to the female. If everything worked out, the fish touch each other, wrap themselves around each other and look closely. This is how seahorses get to know each other. After numerous “embraces,” the female begins, using her genital nipple, to throw a large army of eggs into the male’s purse. Transparent seahorse fry are born after 30 days, ranging from twenty to two hundred individuals. The fry are born by males!

This is interesting! In nature, there is a subspecies of male extraordinary seahorses capable of bearing over a thousand fry.

It is noteworthy that the male seahorse has a very difficult time giving birth; after giving birth, within a day, or even two, he rests for a long time at the bottom of the reservoir. And only the male, not the female, takes care of his babies for a long time, who, in case of impending danger, can again hide in their father’s brood pouch.

Seahorse's aquarium neighbors

Seahorses are unpretentious and mysterious animals. They can very easily get along with other fish and invertebrate species. Only small fish, very slow and careful, are suitable for them as neighbors. Fish such as gobies and blennies can become such neighbors for skates. Among the invertebrates, we can highlight the snail, which is an excellent aquarium cleaner and also does not sting corals.

You can also place live stones in aquariums with needlefish, the main thing is that they are completely healthy and do not cause diseases.

Where to buy a seahorse

Any online aquarium and pet store offers live pictures and photographs of different types of seahorses that will help you choose the most ideal option.

It is here or in any pet store in your city that you can purchase a seahorse at the best prices. In the future, many pet stores offer significant discounts for their regular customers, ranging from 10% and higher when ordering a batch of seahorses.