If you do not live near warm ocean or a water park something you might not have seen seahorses or sea dragons to see just how amazing these tiny creatures are. Long, elongated, like those of a horse, their heads give them an almost mythical image. In reality, they are not immortal, and besides, many die during the storm. Sea "horses" hide with the help of excellent camouflage, long spikes and ribbon-like outgrowths make them invisible in their natural underwater environment.

The size of seahorses is from 2 to 20 centimeters. Seahorses like leafy sea dragons and sea needles carry their offspring in special bags where the female spawns. The burden of maternal care falls on. With such entertaining and interesting facts as well as amazing pictures of seahorses we invite you to familiarize yourself.

Seahorses (Hippocampus) - gentle and beautiful creatures got their name from the ancient Greek "hippo", which means "horse" and "campos" - " sea ​​monsters". The genus Hippocampus includes 54 marine fish species.
The spotted seahorse in the photo is 15 centimeters long and lives up to four years.

Spectacular rainbow seahorse in Hamburg, Germany.

Leafy sea dragons at the Georgia Aquarium. Sea "monsters" live at southern shores Australia and are masters of disguise. Seemingly harmless, the sea dragon is a real predator - it feeds on small fish and shrimps.

The weedy sea dragon is endangered. With small tubular snouts, relatives of seahorses suck in tiny prey, sometimes various debris gets there.

Leafy sea dragons at Birch Aquarium, San Diego, California. They can grow up to 35 cm in length. When the males are ready to mate, their leafy tails turn bright yellow.

The Black Sea seahorse is a rare sight in shallow waters, Romania.

Leafy sea dragon in an aquarium, Atlanta. In nature, they live in the tropical coastal waters of South and Western Australia.

spiny seahorse(Hippocampus histrix) gets its name from the spikes that stick out of it. Usually lives in - from 3 to 80 meters. One of the most large species seahorses and can grow up to 17 cm.

Seahorse at the Oregon Aquarium. Sea Horses are not good swimmers. The other is the only species of fish when males carry unborn offspring on themselves.

Weed sea dragon near seagrass, Sydney, Australia. Brown algae and reefs serve as good camouflage for them and protection from predators.

At first glance, pregnant seahorses, but they are not. bellied seahorses(Hippocampus abdominalis) separate view and one of the largest, can reach a length of 35 cm.

The spiny seahorse, like most of its brethren, is threatened with extinction. The human appetite for exotic fish is on the rise, which is why skates have been listed as protected by the Convention on international trade types wildlife and flora endangered.

Leaf sea dragons, like their relatives, weed dragons, are very caring fathers. They bear offspring on themselves. born fry immediately become independent.

Pipefish Another one distant relative seahorses. This creature has a longer, straighter body with tiny mouths.

Another one of the seahorse relatives at the Wilhelm Zoo, Germany.

Macro photo of a gray and yellow seahorse at the Zurich Zoo. While eating or interacting with other relatives, these fish make a "clicking" sound.

Say love between them ...

Leafy sea dragons dance at the Dallas Aquarium. The only working fins are on the chest and back, because sea dragons are not very fast - 150 meters per hour. Individuals were observed that spent up to 68 hours in one place.

A pygmy seahorse camouflages itself against soft coral near Cebu, Philippines. Pygmies reach a maximum length of 2.4 cm. The zone of residence is from southern Japan to northern Australia in reef areas at a depth of 10-40 meters.

Sea needle - Solenostomus paradoxus - off the coast of Thailand. Close relatives of seahorses come in a variety of colors and sizes, ranging from 2.5 to 50 cm.

Excellent disguise.

Weed Sea Dragons close-up. Left: Shelly Beach weed dragon, Australia; right: eggs on male dragons.

morning mating dances seahorses.

The skinny body of a weedy dragon "flies" through the water. The body of the sea dragon and its color develops based on environment, food.

The skinny and toothless marine needle has a snake-like body.

Seahorses are voracious. The absence of a stomach and teeth makes them constantly eat. In this regard, they consume up to 50 shrimp per day.

Before mating, the courtship ritual of seahorses lasts several days. Few couples stay together for life, most stay together only during the mating season.

Nature miracle.

The perfection of nature.

Close-up

Friendly family.

Schultz's sea needle - Corythoichthys schultzi - in Egypt.

Different types of seahorses and dragons.

Seahorses are the slowest marine fish.

Only 1% of fry grow to adults.

Seahorses are masters of camouflage.

The pygmy pipit is one of the smallest vertebrates in the world against the backdrop of soft corals.

Stunning shot: a kiss of lovers.

The beauty of a leafy sea dragon.

The needle family includes: seahorses, seapikes, leafy and weedy sea dragons.

Spiny seahorse.

The proud loneliness of a seahorse.

Close-up.

Curiosity.

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 of seahorses there are. 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 look after 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 with a simple eye do not notice this. However, scuba divers say that when you get close to 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 World Wildlife Fund, 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 - a narrow, long bay off the coast of the US states of 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 captured seahorses - 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 to more than thirty countries, including India and Australia. Here, a kilo of seahorses costs about $1,300.

From these dried fish, crushed and mixed with other substances, such as tree bark, drugs are prepared that are as popular in Japan, Korea, China as we are - 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 total area 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.

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

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 species of seahorses (although the species diversity of seahorses is high, only 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.

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.

Black Sea sea ​​Horse is an indigenous 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 opportunities and skills 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 seahorse is covered with horny plates, spikes of various lengths and growths, which serve as an additional means of 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 quantities. But they can also create couples for life, especially when living in artificial conditions 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.


"Seed pair" of seahorses
Photo: https://c2.staticflickr.com

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, females carefully choose the future father, and their mating dances can 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.


Seahorse in the waters of the Black Sea
Photo: wikimedia.org

When the prelude ends, the female lays eggs (depending on size, from 10 to 650 eggs). For this, at the bottom abdominal cavity the male is provided with an egg bag-pocket penetrated by the 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 square meter his "personal" area, where he 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.


Sea Horse

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 in the human body and toxic substances which helps in the prevention of cancer.

Many have seen these marine life on TV or in aquariums, but not everyone realizes how surprising interesting facts about seahorse. These beautiful representatives of fish amaze with their unique properties. However, in wild nature very hard to watch them. Moreover, the number of seahorses has recently declined sharply due to the destruction of their habitats.

  1. Seahorses are the only fish that have a neck.. Scientists have proven that seahorses are relatives of needlefish. True, during the evolution of 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. S-shape body allows skates to successfully hunt from cover. They freeze among algae or reefs, and when a tiny larva swims by, they capture it with a turn of their heads.
  2. Skates can ride "on horseback" on fish. Due to their curved tail, seahorses can travel long distances. They grab the perch's fins and hold on until the fish swims into the algae. And the skates grab their pair with their tail and swim in an embrace.
  3. The eyes of skates move independently of one another.. The organ of vision in a seahorse 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.
  4. Disguise Skates. To avoid numerous enemies, seahorses allow the ability to change color depending on the location. Just like chameleons, seahorses match the color of their scales to the color of coral or algae, making them almost invisible.
  5. Seahorses have a great 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 proboscises, skates draw in plankton, small larvae and crustaceans. And it happens so fast that it's hard to track.
  6. Almost no one eats seahorses. These small fish can become the prey of other predators, perhaps by accident. They are almost entirely composed of bones, spines and scales, so there are few hunters for them, except perhaps rays and large crabs.
  7. Seahorses are stressed. Stress is often a mortal danger for seahorses. These fish do well in clean, calm water. Strong pitching at sea leads to the exhaustion of their forces. And with a sudden change of place of residence, they may even die. Therefore, it is difficult to breed skates in aquariums; in an artificial environment, they do not take root well.
  8. The female chooses the male. We can say that seahorses have a matriarchy. After all, it is the females who decide which of the males to choose as a spouse.
  9. Seahorses perform mating dances. For several days, the female performs a kind of dance together with the alleged chosen one, rising to the surface of the water and sinking to the bottom, intertwining her tails. If the male falls behind the bride, she will most likely leave him and look for another, more profitable party.
  10. Male seahorses are "pregnant". If the female has chosen a suitable male for herself, then she remains faithful to him until the end of her life. It is to the male that she entrusts the gestation of eggs and care for the offspring. The female transfers the eggs to a special bag on the body of the male. There, future skates grow for a month and a half. And then they are born 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 only remain until full maturation. This is the function of protecting future offspring.

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  11. Skates are fragile, but tenacious. One out of a hundred born seahorse fry survives to full-fledged adults. This is a very high figure for fish. It is thanks to this indicator that seahorses have not died out so far.

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  12. 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 sea ​​power Northern Fleet. But since seahorses don't live in the waters Barents Sea, the image of the skate was replaced with the image of a dolphin. It should be noted that seahorses are inhabitants of tropical and subtropical salt water bodies. And the largest seas of Russia are not included in this list.

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  13. 30 types of skates are listed in the Red Book. And 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 activities. In Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, skates are caught in order to dry and use 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 the plankton useful for skates is often eaten by jellyfish, which are beneficially affected by climate change.
  14. 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 a delicacy is an average of $ 800 per serving. And in China, fried skates are served on sticks.

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  15. Skates live on Earth for 40 million years. Despite the fact that fossilized seahorses are rare, scientists have proven that these fish have existed for several tens of millions of years. They appeared at a time when tectonic shifts earth's crust shallows formed in the oceans and algae began to spread.

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