The Seahorse’s Unique Relative – Greater Cleveland Aquarium (2024)

FAQs

What is unique about the seahorse? ›

They are unique in appearance, with their horselike head, prehensile tail, independently moving eyes, and brood pouch. They have long, tubular snouts and small, toothless mouths. Their bodies are covered with consecutive rings of bony plates.

You are similar to the members of your family, but also different. Seahorse cousins and relatives include: Pipefish, Pipehorses, and Seadragons!

Given the lined seahorse is not a fast-moving or strong-swimming species, it relies on camouflage as a primary foraging strategy. Seahorse predators can include crabs, sharks, skates, and rays, and larger fish. Unlike most other species in the animal kingdom, seahorse males carry and deliver offspring.

Their truly remarkable biological claim to fame, however, is that male seahorses and sea dragons get pregnant and bear young—a unique adaptation in the animal kingdom.

Seahorses are the only fish species that can hold your hand! Unlike most fish that use their tails for swimming, seahorses, such as this longsnout seahorse (Hippocampus reidi ), use their monkey-like tails to hold onto objects in their environment, like corals or seagrass.

The pipefishes and ghost pipefishes are among the closest relatives to seahorses and seadragons. Similar to those groups, these fishes have elongated snouts for capturing small prey and are extremely well-camouflaged.

Seahorse: Symbol of Good Luck

This is often interpreted as a spiritual reminder to remain grounded and steady, even when the world around us feels like a turbulent ocean. Their unique appearance, much like a tiny underwater dragon, has also associated them with the realm of magic and fantasy.

So the seahorse has a unique muscular tail that is prehensile, meaning it can grip objects the way your hand does. Seahorses often wrap their tails around sea grass stems, coral heads, sponges, mangroves, or any other suitable objects when they need to anchor themselves.

Seahorses, a syngnathidae fish, are one of the important candidate organisms which have been used in Chinese traditional medicine from time immemorial. It is believed that seahorses have the potential to cure infertility, baldness, asthma and arthritis.

In captivity, lifespans for seahorse species range from about one year in the smallest species to three to five years in the larger species.

What are seahorse babies called? ›

A baby seahorse is called a “fry.” When the time is right for the babies to be born, the males will bend their bodies back and forth until a tiny seahorse pops out of the pouch.

In short, Diane, seahorses learn readily, retain what they have learned, and are relatively intelligent animals for their size. Their complex behaviors make them fascinating to observe. You might even say they are the brainiacs among aquarium fish.

Most seahorses are monogamous and mate for life, although a few species are polygamous and change mates from one breeding cycle to the next. However, all species of seahorse mate with only one individual per breeding cycle. Seahorses can often be seen swimming in pairs with their tails linked together.

Special structures in their skin cells, called chromatophores, give seahorses the ability to change color. Seahorses use camouflage, the ability to blend into their surroundings, when they are escaping from predators and when they are sneaking up on prey of their own.

Seahorses are unique among fish for having bent necks and long-snouted heads that make them resemble horses. The overall shape of their body, including the lack of a tail fin, helps make them "one of the slowest swimmers on the planet," said Brad Gemmell, a marine biologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

The seahorse life cycle starts when male seahorses court a female with their dance, and when eggs are laid into a special pouch on the male's belly. In the pouch, the eggs are protected and nourished until they hatch into tiny seahorse babies, called fry.

Eyesight. Seahorses have excellent eyesight and their eyes are able to work independently on either side of their head. This means they can look forwards and backwards at the same time! This is particularly useful as they hunt for food by sight.