Habitat

 Habitat, Behavior and Diet



Seahorses are fascinating examples of bony fish. They have a unique body morphology with a horse-shaped head, large eyes, curved trunk, and a prehensile tail. Even though these charismatic creatures are banned as trade items, they are still heavily traded in the illicit international markets.

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Introduction

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A seahorse is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. " Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippocampus, itself from hippos meaning "horse" and kampyos meaning "sea monster". Seahorses range in size from 1.5 to 35.5cm. They are named for their equine appearance, with bent necks and snouted heads and a distinctive trunk and tail. Although they are bony fish, they do not have scales, but rather thin skin stretched over a series of bony plates, which are arranged in rings their bodies. Each species has a distinct number of rings. The armor of bony plates also protects them against predators, and because of this outer skeleton, they no longer have ribs. Seahorses swim upright, propelling themselves using the dorsal fin, another characteristic not shared by their close pipefish relatives, which swim horizontally. Razorfish are the only other fish that swim vertically. The pectoral fins, located on either side of the head behind t...
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Classification of seahorses

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There are 64 spices in seahorses. Below is information on some of them. 1.Zebra Seahorse  A tropical seahorse with alternating pale and dark zebra-like bands and stripes on the head and body, and often yellow tips on the spines. Lourie et al .(2016) determined that hippocampus is a junior synonym of H. Zebra. 2.Dwarf seahorse The dwarf seahorse is the third smallest species in the world. It is found in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and the Caribbean. 3.Short-snouted seahorse Short snouted seahorses are found in shallow waters, often in estuaries or associated with seagrass meadows. They have even recently been recorded in the Thames! They use their prehensive tail to cling onto seagrass or seaweed, as they are pretty poor swimmers. They don't have teeth and simply suck up their favourite prey of small shrimp and plankton. Seahorses are known to practice monogamy, though we no longer think that they mate for life. They are usually brownish...
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