Seahorse

Sometimes a seahorse is washed up on the beach. This ocean life is only a few inches long. Its face looks like a horse. But, seahorse is a fish. However, seahorses are very different from other fish because they have no scales, no teeth, and do not have a stomach.

Seahorses swim with their head straight up. They rest often. They curl around the seaweed in the shallow ocean water. The seahorse is just an ocean life of the thousands of different kinds of fish in the ocean. Seahorses are found in temperate and tropical water.

Seahorse Facts

Seahorses can be as small as 16 mm or as large as 35 cm. Seahorses are among the only ocean life where the seahorse males get pregnant.

When seahorses are mating, the female seahorse inserts her eggs into the male seahorse 's pouch. The male seahorse fertilizes the eggs as they enter the pouch. When a seahorse male gets pregnant, the pregnancy lasts about 2 - 4 weeks. The embryo develops for 10 days to 6 weeks depending on the type of seahorse and the ocean water condition. The male seahorse goes into labor for a few hours and gives birth to between 20 to 400 seahorse babies. A seahorse often mates under a full moon. Seahorses are loyal and they mate for life.

A seahorse changes color to blend in with their surroundings to avoid getting eaten by larger ocean life and birds.

They usually live in underwater seagrass meadows and among coral reefs. They feed on small living ocean life such as daphnia, cyclops, larvae of water insects, small crustaceans, worms, or mysids. There are 35 known types of seahorse around the world.