Black Sea seahorse. Seahorse (47 photos) Seahorses interesting facts
Any aquatic animal is of great interest due to its unusualness already in view of the habitat itself, which is not the same as in humans. Learn more about one of the types of marine animals - the seahorse.
Facts about seahorses
1. Fact mythological. The ancient Roman god of the seas Neptune himself, going around his possessions (as those who believed in him), harnessed seahorses to the chariot. The similarity of these fish of the needle family with horses has been noticed already in ancient times. However, the similarity is only external, and the size of seahorses is much smaller than that of land horses - a maximum of thirty centimeters.
2. Seahorses live in the tropics, sometimes subtropics. Contrary to the name, some of them have quite adapted to fresh water.
3. The main food of skates are shrimps and crustaceans. The mouth opening works similarly to a pipette, sucking in water along with the prey in it. The swim bladder of a seahorse is placed not according to the fish (horizontal) pattern, but according to the mammalian pattern - vertically. Accordingly, the body of the fish is always vertical. The head part of the bladder is separated by a wall from the rest of the body.
4. The beautiful and unusual shape of the animal is fascinating ... but because of it, the skate cannot swim quickly. All that is available to him are elegant, graceful swims, in which he rows with his fins. To ensure their safety, skates have learned to deftly disguise themselves in algae and corals, clinging to them with their tail and freezing motionless.
5. In terms of the level of disguise, a seahorse can easily compete with a chameleon. It takes on any color, even black, even yellow. In addition, the fish's armor is so strong that it is not a trivial task to break it, even with mechanical tools.
6. But no beauty, no biological perfection saves skates from extinction. Almost all of their species have already appeared in the red book. And it was the elegant appearance that caused the mass capture.
7. The natural beauty of seahorses is not enough for poachers - they still transform these fish by arching their tail so that it looks like the Latin letter C.
8. Oriental medicine actively uses the seahorse as a raw material for the manufacture of drugs against diseases of the skin and upper respiratory tract.
9. Despite all the efforts of the hunters, the seahorses managed to survive. They are helped in this by considerable fertility. Keeping a horse in captivity is very difficult, it requires a lot of small living creatures for food. Fry can eat food for ten hours a day, during which time more than three thousand shrimps and crustaceans are consumed.
10. These amazing fish have been living on Earth for about forty million years, and it is up to us to keep them as long as possible.
The seahorse is an unusual animal resembling a small magic horse ranging in size from 1.5 to 30 centimeters. It is related to the 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
Seahorse - interesting facts for children about appearance. The movement involves a small fin on the back, oscillating up to 35 times per second. Rowing with two gill fins maintains vertical balance. They are weak swimmers, some dwarf species move 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 the 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 swim by itself, so a small current is needed for a comfortable life.
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 of the naval power of the Northern Fleet. It was displayed on the emblem of Zaozersk, a city in the 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 associated with the economic activities 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.
Don't crucian, don't perch,
Has a long neck
Who is he? Guess soon!
Well, of course, horse!
Seahorse (from lat. Hippocampus) is a small cute marine fish of an unusual shape from the genus of bony fish (family of sea needles) of the needle-shaped order. Looking at this fish, the chess piece of a horse immediately comes to mind. The long neck is a distinctive feature of the skate. If you disassemble the horse into parts of the body, then its head resembles a horse's, the tail is a monkey, the eyes are from a chameleon, and the outer covers resemble those of insects. The unusual structure of the tail allows the skate to cling to seaweed and corals and hide in them, sensing danger. The ability to mimic (camouflage) makes the seahorse almost invulnerable. The seahorse feeds on plankton. Young skates are quite voracious and can eat for 10 hours in a row, eating up to three thousand crustaceans and shrimps. The vertical position of the seahorse relative to the water is its distinguishing feature.
It is interesting that the seahorse is a caring father and faithful spouse. The heavy burden of motherhood falls on the shoulders of the male. The seahorse independently bears the cub in a special bag, which is located in the lower part of the abdomen of the seahorse. It is there that during mating games the female introduces caviar. If the female dies, the male remains faithful to the partner for a long time and vice versa, if the male dies, the female remains faithful to the male for up to 4 weeks.
Dimensions
The size of a seahorse varies from two to three centimeters to 30. Thirty centimeters is the size of a giant seahorse. The average size is 10 or 12 centimeters. The smallest representatives - pygmy seahorses have about 13 or even 3 millimeters. With a size of 13 centimeters, the weight of a seahorse is about 10 grams.
A few more photos with seahorses.
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 even can not be compared with the brightest inhabitants of sea waters - seahorses.
The seahorse is one of the most outlandish representatives of the aquarium world. Despite their bizarre forms, all seahorses are included in the subgroup of bony marine fish, the needle-shaped order.
It is interesting! There are only one males on the planet who themselves bear their future offspring - seahorses.
Taking a closer look, you yourself will notice the striking resemblance of these small bony fish with a chess piece. And how a seahorse moves interestingly in the water, bends all over and very proudly carries its superbly folded head!
Despite the apparent difficulty, keeping a seahorse is practically the same as keeping any other inhabitants of the aquarium world. But, before acquiring one or several individuals, many factors should be taken into account, 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 for a thousand years before our era. In ancient Roman mythology, it is told that the god of water streams and the sea, Neptune, whenever he went to check his possessions, harnessed a “sea needle”, very similar to a horse, to the chariot. Therefore, for sure, Lord Neptune cannot be huge if he moved on small thirty-centimeter skates. And, seriously, it is very rare in nature today to find marine needle-shaped ones that would reach a length of 30 cm. Basically, “horses” barely reach twelve centimeters.
In our time, the existence of the fossilized remains of the ancestors of the seahorse is already known. In the course of a study at the genetic level, scientists have identified the similarity of a seahorse with a needle fish.
What are seahorses
Today, marine aquarists breed seahorses that 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 specially named so, since the head, chest, 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 set in a completely different way than that of fish - in relation to the body, it is located at ninety degrees. What is even more interesting, these marine fish have eyes looking in different directions.
And these small, cute little sea creatures swim not horizontally, but vertically and have scales all over their body, strong armor - bone colorful, iridescent plates. The shell of these marine needle-shaped specimens is "steel" that it cannot be pierced.
I would also like to mention an interesting property of a twisted, long tail of a sea fish in the form of a spiral. If seahorses feel that a predator is nearby, they very quickly run away to shelter, algae, which they skillfully cling to with their spiral tail and manage to hide.
It is interesting! Feeling that danger is imminent, seahorse fish cling to corals or algae with their long tails and remain motionless for a long time, hanging upside down.
Despite such a cute appearance, seahorses are classified as predatory fish, as they feed on shrimp and marine crustaceans.
The seahorse has the ability to camouflage itself. They mimic like chameleons, taking on the color of the place where they stop. Basically, these marine fish like to hide where there are more saturated, bright colors in order to avoid encountering predators. And with the help of bright colors, the male attracts the attention of the female, which he really liked. To please the female, he can even “put on” her color.
Seahorses, despite their numbers, are considered rare fish, so their thirty subspecies are listed in the Red Book. The problem is that year after year, the world's oceans turn into a universal polluted, garbage "dump", because of which corals and algae die en masse, and these photosynthetic organisms are vital for seahorses.
And yet, the seahorse itself has long been a valuable animal. The Chinese fish these fish en masse, as they believe that they treat any disease. In many European countries, dead seahorses automatically become raw materials for the manufacture of various souvenirs.
Keeping seahorses at home
Sea bony horses are unusual, bright, funny and very beautiful creatures. Maybe, feeling their beauty and grandeur, they are very “naughty” when they fall into captivity. And to make these fish feel good, even experienced aquarists should try very hard. For them, a natural habitat must be created so that the animals feel there in the same way as in sea water. It is very important to monitor the temperature regime of aquariums. Seahorses will feel comfortable in cool water with a temperature of twenty-three to twenty-five degrees Celsius, but no more. In a hot period, be sure to install a split system above the aquarium, you can simply turn on the fan. From hot air, these little creatures can suffocate even in warm water.
Before placing purchased skates in an aquarium with ordinary water, check its quality: it should not contain phosphates or ammonia. The maximum concentration of nitrates in water is allowed at 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. It will also be important for them to take care of nutrition, because these beautiful inhabitants of the sea love to eat meat and exotic meat often and a lot. On the day, the seahorse should eat at least four to five times, getting the meat of shrimp and crustaceans. To do this, you can buy frozen invertebrate mollusks and crustaceans. Seahorses love Mysis shrimp and will happily eat moths and even daphnia.
- All seahorses suffer from limited gas exchange due to poor performance of the gills. That is why the constant filtration of water and the supply of oxygen is a vital process for seahorses.
- Seahorses do not have stomachs, so they need a lot of food to keep themselves healthy and maintain their energy balance.
- Seahorses do not have scales, which is why they easily succumb to any infection, especially bacterial ones. An ecosystem moderator in an enclosed space should frequently inspect the seahorse's torso, which may be damaged.
- Seahorses have interesting mouths - proboscis, with the help of which these creatures suck in caught prey at such a speed that they can swallow a dozen spineless mollusks at a time.
seahorse breeding
Seahorses are skillful gentlemen! They begin their courtship with a courtship dance, which they demonstrate to the female. If everything worked out, the fish touch each other, wrap themselves around and look closely. This is how seahorses get to know each other. After numerous "hugs", the female begins to throw a large army of caviar into the male's purse with the help of her sexual nipple. Transparent fry of the seahorse are born after 30 days in an amount of from twenty to two hundred individuals. The fry are born - males!
It is interesting! In nature, there is a subspecies of males of an outstanding seahorse, capable of carrying over a thousand fry.
It is noteworthy that it is very difficult for a male seahorse to give offspring, after giving birth, after 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 her babies for a long time, which, in case of imminent danger, can again hide in their father's brood pouch.
Seahorse Aquarium Neighbors
Seahorses are unpretentious and mysterious animals. They can easily get along with other fish and invertebrates. For them, only small fish, very slow and cautious, are suitable as neighbors. Such neighbors for skates can be fish - gobies and blennies. Among the invertebrates, one can single out the snail - an excellent aquarium cleaner, as well as not stinging corals.
It is also possible to place live stones in aquariums with sea needles, the main thing is that they are completely healthy and are not pathogens.
Where to buy a seahorse
In any online store of aquariums and pet stores, there are live pictures and photos 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 buy a seahorse at the best prices. In the future, many pet stores offer significant discounts for their regular customers, ranging from 10% or more when ordering a batch of seahorses.
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 sea piper family. 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. Only a land crab can bite through and digest such “clothes”, 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 interesting feature of 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, and the 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 to eat (almost always), they cling to algae with their tails and, like vacuum cleaners, suck up the surrounding water, which contains 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 of the male is to be hardy and keep up with his 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 survive to sexual maturity. 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.