18/12/2021
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10 Fun Facts About Sea Horses
1. These little guys have a big appetite. In fact, they eat almost constantly. One seahorse can scarf down up to 3,000 brine shrimp per day.
2. They mate for life. The monogamous seahorse employs a complicated mating ritual of dancing with their prospective partner for as long as eight hours.
3. Men have babies! Not really, no. The female deposits fertilized eggs into the male’s pouch, where they gestate safely. Males seen expelling the hatchlings from their pouch gave rise to the old wives tale that males were the ones giving birth.
4. Their tails are a valuable tool. Land based horses may make use of their tails to shoo flies away, but the seahorse will use their powerful tails as a weapon when fighting over food or territory, or as a way to anchor themselves during a storm. Mated pairs will even be seen swimming with tails linked, perhaps their version of holding hands.
5. They have superb camouflage capabilities. It’s quite likely that you’ve swam right past one on a dive or two, never even knowing it was there.
6. Their eyes work independently of one another. They can even keep one eye looking behind them, quite handy for keeping a lookout for predators or other dangers.
7. Speaking of predators, they don’t have all that many. The bony seahorse doesn’t appeal to too many fish. They are, however, a favorite meal of the crab. Humans are a threat as well, who harvest them faster than they can reproduce, mostly for sale to aquariums or in souvenir shops.
8. They have unique identifying markings. A small crown, called a coral net, is different on each seahorse much like the stripes of a zebra are unique to each one.
9. They have a hard exoskeleton rather than scales.
10. Yes, they are fish. They have a swim bladder for buoyancy, gills to breathe, and fins to help them swim.
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