The most interesting thing about seahorses. How do seahorses reproduce?

The seahorse is a small fish, which is a representative of the Spine family from the order Stickleback. Research has shown that the seahorse is a highly modified pipefish. Today the seahorse is a rather rare creature. In this article you will find a description and photo of a seahorse and learn a lot of new and interesting things about this extraordinary creature.

The seahorse looks very unusual and its body shape resembles a chess piece of a horse. The seahorse fish has many long bony spines and various leathery projections on its body. Thanks to this body structure, the seahorse appears unnoticed among the algae and remains inaccessible to predators. The seahorse looks amazing, it has small fins, its eyes rotate independently of each other, and its tail is curled into a spiral. The seahorse looks diverse, because it can change the color of its scales.

The seahorse looks small, its size depends on the species and varies from 4 to 25 cm. In the water, the seahorse swims vertically, unlike other fish. This is due to the fact that the seahorse’s swim bladder consists of an abdominal and a head part. The head bladder is larger than the abdominal one, which allows the seahorse to maintain an upright position when swimming.

Now the seahorse is becoming increasingly rare and is on the verge of extinction due to a rapid decline in numbers. There are many reasons for the disappearance of the seahorse. The main one is the destruction by humans of both the fish itself and its habitats. Off the coast of Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, pipits are being caught en masse. The exotic appearance and bizarre body shape are the reason why people began to make gift souvenirs from them. For beauty, the tail is artificially arched and the body is given the shape of the letter “S”, but in nature skates do not look like that.

Another reason that contributes to the decline in the seahorse population is that they are a delicacy. Gourmets highly value the taste of these fish, especially the eyes and liver of seahorses. In a restaurant, the cost of one serving of such a dish costs $800.

In total, there are about 50 species of seahorses, 30 of which are already listed in the Red Book. Luckily, seahorses are very fertile and can produce over a thousand young at a time, keeping the seahorses from going extinct. Seahorses are bred in captivity, but this fish is very demanding to keep. One of the most extravagant seahorses is the rag-picker seahorse, which you can see in the photo below.

The seahorse lives in tropical and subtropical seas. The seahorse fish lives mainly at shallow depths or near the shore and leads a sedentary lifestyle. The seahorse lives in dense thickets algae and other marine vegetation. It attaches itself to plant stems or corals with its flexible tail, remaining almost invisible due to its body covered with various projections and spines.

The seahorse fish changes body color to completely blend in with its environment. In this way, the seahorse successfully camouflages itself not only from predators, but also while foraging for food. The seahorse is very bony, so few people want to eat it. The main hunter of the seahorse is the large land crab. The seahorse can travel long distances. To do this, it attaches its tail to the fins of various fish and hangs on them until the “free taxi” swims into the algae thickets.

What do seahorses eat?

Seahorses eat crustaceans and shrimp. Seahorses eat very interestingly. The tubular stigma, like a pipette, draws prey into the mouth along with water. Seahorses eat quite a lot and hunt almost the whole day, taking short breaks of a couple of hours.

Seahorses eat about 3 thousand planktonic crustaceans per day. But seahorses eat almost any food, as long as it does not exceed the size of their mouth. The seahorse fish is a hunter. With its flexible tail, the seahorse clings to the algae and remains motionless until the prey is in the required proximity to the head. After which the seahorse absorbs water along with food.

How do seahorses reproduce?

Seahorses reproduce quite in an unusual way, because their fry is carried by the male. Seahorses often have monogamous pairs. The mating season of seahorses is an amazing sight. A couple who are about to enter into a marriage union are held together by their tails and dance in the water. During the dance, the skates press against each other, after which the male opens a special pocket in the abdominal area, into which the female throws eggs. Subsequently, the male bears offspring for a month.

Seahorses reproduce quite often and produce large offspring. A seahorse gives birth to one thousand or more young at a time. The fry are born an absolute copy of the adults, only very tiny. The babies that are born are left to their own devices. In nature, a seahorse lives for about 4-5 years.

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The seahorse is an amazing and unusual representative of tropical waters. Its appearance and some features of life differ from representatives marine environment. Among connoisseurs of such individuals, a common question is: is a seahorse a fish or an animal? The answer to it is simple - the individual belongs to the animal kingdom and the class of Ray-finned fish. After many years of research, scientists have proven that the animal is a close relative of the pipefish.

The seahorse belongs to the animal kingdom and the class of ray-finned fish

General information

Since the animal is considered a highly modified species of pipefish, it belongs to the order Aciliformes. The unusual body of the skate really resembles a chess piece. Perhaps this was the reason to give the animal such a name.

IN natural environment The pipit can be found in subtropical and tropical waters around the world. Salty and maximum pure water - best condition for his comfortable stay. The size of the seahorse is small and ranges from 2 to 30−32 cm. It is quite rare to find individuals that reach 35 cm in length.

There are many theories about where the seahorse lives, as it has been seen in different corners planets. Most often the animal can be found in water bodies of Australia, sometimes England. Sometimes individual species are found in the Azov and Black Seas. It prefers to stay close to the bottom and uses algae as cover, camouflaging itself in their thickets and changing color according to the color they are painted in.

The seahorse prefers to be at the bottom of the reservoir and hide in the algae

The body of the fish is covered with a very hard and bony shell., which protects against negative influences environment. There are often spines on the body different lengths and forms, some covered with long ribbon-like processes different color. Surprisingly, this fish has no scales. A special feature of the structure will be the head, since it is very firmly attached to the body and does not rotate. If the horse wants to look back, it turns its whole body or bulges its eyes.

Each eye moves separately from the other. This feature is also inherent in chameleons, which can rotate each eye separately in a circle. There is some debate about how long seahorses live, as they usually live up to 4 years, but in some cases you can find representatives who live up to 6 years.

Another feature of the fish is its vertical position in the water. This is possible due to the fact that the swim bladder is divided into two sections by a thin septum and allows it to maintain a vertical position.

Popular types

There are about 50 species of seahorses in their natural habitat. Each of them differs in size, appearance and some structural features. The most common are the following:

In Southern Japan you can find dwarf individuals. They are painted in light colors with purple stripes or spots. They camouflage well as corals. They have a body length of no more than 3 cm. They prefer not to descend to a depth of more than 40 meters.

Nutritional Features

Amazing fish are one of the few species that are not the hunt is on from other residents depths of the sea. It's all about the structure of the individuals, in which spines and bone plates predominate. Large animals are unable to digest such food. predatory fish or other hunters. The only one who can eat the skate is the sand crab, whose stomach is able to digest what it eats.

The skates themselves feed on plankton.

Their favorite delicacy unusual fish OK- baby crayfish and other small fish. Thanks to amazing ability the skate camouflages itself and remains motionless for several hours, it successfully hunts them. It waits for the moment when the victim approaches and sucks it along with water into its mouth.

Seahorses do not have a stomach. That's why they are very gluttonous

Despite their small size, seahorses are very voracious and are capable of hunting and eating for up to 10 hours a day. a large number of small individuals. This is due to the fact that individuals do not have a stomach, so food passes through all sections quite quickly digestive system. If you keep them in captivity, Several feeding rules should be followed:

• Captive-bred specimens are capable of feeding on dead daphnia, shrimp and other small specimens, as well as dry fish food.
• The food should only be fresh.
• Individuals should be fed regularly, but avoid overeating, as in captivity this can cause a variety of diseases.

It is possible to install a variety of feeders in which food is placed. A few days after installing such an innovation, the individuals themselves will understand that this is a new place for eating. Several long rods or sticks should be installed near the feeders so that the skates can cling to them while eating.

Reproduction of seahorses

Unusual fish lead a sedentary lifestyle and are in one place almost all the time. In case of danger, they can develop decent speed or are attached to big fish so that they could move them to a safer place.

The fish is faithful and throughout his life prefers to be close to one partner. Only in rare cases does a female or male change her life partner. The most incredible thing will be the fact that in a married couple the male bears the offspring. After the start of spawning, the couple performs a certain mating dance for a long time. After this, the female transfers the eggs to a special pocket, which is located on the male’s belly.

After 2 weeks of gestation, the fry emerge from the pocket, are already independent and immediately set off for free swimming. Different kinds Pipits are distinguished by their fertility and can lay from 5 to 2000 eggs at a time.

Breeding skates in captivity is quite difficult and an aquarium hobbyist will not be able to cope with it. Despite the fact that individuals are quite popular among aquarists, keeping them in an artificial environment has many nuances. If the conditions are not met, they begin to get sick and die.

Currently seahorses different types are on the verge of extinction. This is due to the fact that in many countries fish is considered an expensive delicacy and is caught on an industrial scale. In some regions of Australia and Asia, skates are used as raw materials for the preparation of various ointments and medications.

ABOUT healing properties meat of this amazing fish Humanity has known it since ancient times and included it in many dishes. However, then amateur fishing could not significantly reduce the number of individuals. Now fishing has really become a problem, since it gradually leads to complete disappearance kind.

Among unusual fish, the seahorse is particularly unusual: it is difficult to recognize it as a fish. Let's talk a little about seahorses - how are they different from their other brothers from the class of fish?

Almost all fish swim the same way: the body is located horizontally and in the direction of movement. In seahorses, when swimming, the body is vertical, or slightly tilted forward. The strange way in which seahorses position their bodies when swimming is associated with the structure of these fish.

Fins and swim bladder

In most fish we see several fins: dorsal, caudal, anal, paired abdominal and paired pectoral. Seahorses have half as many fins: they have only three fins that help them move in the water:

• A very small fan-shaped dorsal fin is necessary for forward locomotion.
• Tiny pectoral fins help maintain vertical balance and control movement.

The swim bladder helps them support their body vertically. It is located along the entire body, its front part extends into the head, which is typical only for this fish.

The swim bladder is divided into two parts. The volume of the head part of the bladder is noticeably larger than the abdominal part. It is this structure of the swim bladder that contributes to vertical position skate when swimming. The seahorse is designed like a float: top part the torso is lighter than the lower one. The center of gravity is shifted downwards - to the tail part of the body, so the head is lighter and is located at the top.

Reproduction: Ritual morning greetings and male color changes

How seahorses reproduce - the incredible and strange uniqueness of this amazing fish. The male and female seem to have switched roles - the male carries and gives birth to the cubs. Scientists learned about this quite recently - in the last century.

Before talking about reproduction, you need to pay attention to the external integument of the seahorses:

• The body of seahorses is covered on top with bony plates that form very strong, spiny armor. This is a real shell that is difficult to break even in dead fish.
• The female's body is completely covered with bony plates, while the male has no plates at the base of the abdomen. Because here is a voluminous leathery pocket in which he bears his offspring.

Reproduction of seahorses living in tropical seas has interesting features in behavior. Early in the morning, males perform ritual greetings: each male swims around his chosen one, as if demonstrating readiness to reproduce. It was noted that at these moments the male’s shell in the chest area is colored dark color. With his head bowed, he moves in circles around the female, his tail slightly touching the bottom.

What about the female? She reacts to this behavior of the male - she begins to spin around herself after the male, but does not move from her place. During the breeding season, the greeting ritual is repeated every morning. Having completed this peculiar dance, the couple begins to have breakfast. The fish remain in a limited area and try to keep each other in sight. The closer the moment of mating, the longer the greeting ritual becomes and can even last the whole day.

IN temperate latitudes During the breeding season, male seahorses inflate their leathery pouch so that the skin becomes very stretched and becomes almost white.

Mating and spawning

We continue to explore the process of how seahorses reproduce and how mating occurs:

• Mating requires that the male and female mature at the same time.
• On the day of mating, during the greeting ritual, at a certain moment the female sharply raises her head and swims upward.
• The male moves after her. At this moment, the female’s ovipositor is clearly visible, and the male’s pouch opens wide.
• The female directs the ovipositor into the wide opening of the pouch and lays eggs there.
• The process of laying eggs occurs in several stages, each lasting a few seconds. The female lays eggs until the bag is completely filled (it can hold more than 600 eggs).

If one of the partners is not ready, spawning is interrupted and the whole process begins again. The number of eggs laid usually depends on the size of the male and the type of fish. Different species produce from 30 - 60 eggs to 500 or more per spawning. For example, a long-snouted seahorse: an aged 10-12 centimeter female can lay more than 650 eggs.

Let's talk a little about male seahorses:

• The male's readiness to mate is also manifested in a change in the internal state of the skin of the pocket: from the inside it becomes like a sponge filled with blood vessels.
• A large number of blood vessels With inside bags plays important role during egg development. This is an amazing feature of the structure of male seahorses!

When the eggs are laid and the pouch is completely filled with “priceless cargo,” the future daddy horse swims away with an inflated pocket, becoming like a unique “living stroller” filled with cubs.

The birth of small hippocampuses - seahorses

After 1-2 months, tiny fry are born - exact copies your parents. The male squeezes his offspring through a special hole in the pouch. When pushing out the last baby, the father fish can sometimes experience very strong and noticeable “birth pangs.” Therefore, the birth of babies is a very exhausting process for the male.

Immediately after birth, seahorse fry become independent because they do not receive any help from their parents. They begin to feed immediately after leaving the pouch. Different species have different behavioral strategies: the fry of some species move with the flow, others remain in the place of birth.

Are seahorses monogamous?

For a long time it was believed that seahorses are monogamous - they mate with one permanent partner.

It is likely that early naturalists who observed this behavior in one or two species concluded that it was characteristic of all seahorses. Over time, observations by both amateur aquarists and ichthyologists have proven that this is a myth. Seahorses are not at all monogamous.

British ichthyologists studied sexual behavior seahorses of different species and saw that individual individuals can “flirt” with 25 different partners during the day. For example, only five pairs of British spiny seahorses were faithful to each other, but twelve pairs were not.

IN home aquarium There have also been cases where a male accepted eggs from two females at the same time. It is likely that similar behavior during reproduction can be observed in nature too.

Signs of courtship in seahorses include color changes, synchronized swimming, and intertwining of tails.

Menu of seahorses in nature and in the aquarium

What do seahorses eat in the wild? Their food is tiny zooplankton (crustaceans). By type of feeding they are ambush predators:

• Having a camouflage camouflage, its tail caught in the algae, the fish stands vertically in the water and tracks down its prey.
• Having noticed the crustacean, the horse examines it for a couple of seconds, rolling its eyes in a funny way.
• Then he inflates his cheeks, so high pressure is created in his mouth.
• And immediately, like a vacuum cleaner, he pulls the crustacean into his mouth and swallows it.
• Prey can be retracted from a distance of 4 cm.

Seahorses feed up to 10 hours a day and can eat more than 3,000 thousand brine shrimp. In the aquarium, these voracious fish willingly eat shrimp, live and frozen mysids, artemia, daphnia, and bloodworms. It is recommended to feed them twice a day daily, and the food should be varied. On some brine shrimp, pipits may feel hungry.

The place of the seahorse in the fish system, the Red Book and 2 hryvnia

Seahorses - small sea ​​fish, ranging in size from 2 to 30 cm. They belong to the type of chordates, to the subtype of vertebrates, to the superclass of fish - class bony fish and the subclass of ray-finned fish, to the order of sticklebacks, the needle family, the genus seahorses. The closest relatives of seahorses are pipefish, in which the male also bears the offspring.

Seahorses are currently on the verge of extinction. Many species are listed in the Red Book, for example the long-snouted seahorse from the Black Sea. This horse is depicted on a coin with a face value of 2 hryvnia, which was issued by the National Bank of Ukraine.

The massive catch of these exotic fish for making souvenirs has led to their complete disappearance in the Black Sea recreation areas. And since 1994, the Black Sea population of this species is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, and its catching is prohibited.

Children really like seahorses. Make a “Seahorse” bookmark with your child and study the features while completing a creative task appearance this amazing fish.

Parental problems of pipefish and their relatives

Male pipefish, like male seahorses, prepare very carefully to raise their future offspring. True, eggs are hatched differently in different types of needles. In some, the skin on the abdomen turns into a kind of sponge, and the eggs laid by the female are completely immersed in this porous tissue. In others, during the breeding season, two longitudinal folds of skin appear on the underside of the tail, which cover the eggs on both sides, but are not connected to each other. In still others, the folds grow together and a real pouch is formed, similar to the brood pouch of seahorses. In it (as, indeed, in the case if the folds are not connected) there is a large number of blood vessels through which the eggs and fry are supplied with oxygen and harmful metabolic products are eliminated. In the inner epithelial layer, which is in close contact with the shell of the eggs, there are special cells responsible for osmoregulation, i.e. maintaining a certain concentration of salts in the contents of the bag. This point is very important for needle fish, since most of them live in places with variable salinity of water (in shallow water, near river mouths). Eggs and fry, not yet able to carry out the processes of osmoregulation themselves, would die if the salt concentration inside the brood chamber changed as sharply as in the external environment.

After the body of male pipefish has been rebuilt and they are ready to accept eggs, mating activities begin. Unlike “respectable” seahorses, many pipefish are polygamous, i.e. do not adhere to constancy in marital relations. Each female lays eggs in the pouches of several males, so a male often carries eggs from different females. Moreover, in some species, for example, in those living on our Far East coastal pipefish, males during spawning for about an hour and a half gracefully court females, seeking their favor. In other polygamous species, there is a change in behavioral roles - in them, females are already looking for the favor of representatives of the stronger sex. They acquire bright mating colors (in some cases, various decorations in the form of additional folds and “frills” also develop on their body) and actively court the males. And they, in turn, choose which of the females caring for them to prefer and allow her to lay eggs in the prepared “nursery”. Female needlefish do not have any special devices that would allow them to stay close to the male while laying eggs, so they have to hurry. A well-developed muscle layer in the walls of the ovaries and a large number of nerve fibers form a mechanism that allows the female to quickly inject a portion of eggs into the male’s brood pouch and then go in search of the next candidate parent.

It is interesting that male pipefish of some species, like seahorses, may contain eggs and larvae in the brood chamber. different stages development, while others have only one. These species probably use different strategies: they fertilize the eggs in batches as they appear, or first wait until the bag is filled to capacity.

Interestingly, fertilization of eggs in the closed space of the pouch allows male needlefish to produce a record small number of germ cells, since each of the sperm in this case is simply “doomed to success.”

The amount of caviar that can fit in the bag also varies for different types of needles. Thus, male seaside pipefish, with a length of 20 and a thickness of 1 cm, are capable of bearing more than a thousand young. At the beginning of pregnancy there are a thousand eggs with a diameter of about 1 mm, and by the end (after about a month) there are a thousand fry with a length of 11–12 mm.

The hatching of tiny needles from the egg membranes begins around the second week after the eggs are laid and fertilized, after which the larvae continue to develop in the confined space of the paternal pouch. So the male pipefish experiences all the hardships of “pregnancy”, including the very significant weight of the growing fry and their constant movement...

Like seahorses, needlefish are highly valued in oriental medicine and are therefore caught in large quantities in many places. True, in smaller quantities than skates, which are valued more highly by healers and “go well” as just souvenirs. Most of the seahorse species have already been included in the IUCN Red List (see “Biology”, No. 42/2002). For pipefish, the situation is not yet so critical, but the only way to preserve these species in the future seems to be through their artificial breeding. Attempts at such breeding have already been made in Australia and Vietnam. However, this “industry” is just in its infancy, and there are still many difficulties on the way to turning needle fish into an aquaculture object. A number of problems arise, in particular, with feeding, as well as with the development of measures to prevent various diseases of these cute fish. However, scientists do not lose hope and continue to work actively. Perhaps this is how it will be possible to save for posterity amazing fish, distinguished by simply unique and selfless care for their offspring.

To the question, did you know that male seahorses give birth to children??? given by the author ANNA DEMCHENKO the best answer is I knew.

Answer from Caucasian[master]
What does a woman do?

Answer from tales[guru]
He carries them in a special bag on his body

Answer from Stripe[guru]
He does not give birth to them, in the literal sense of the word. He carries the eggs, which are given to him by the female. The fry hatch in the male's pouch and emerge.

Answer from Artyom Loginov[newbie]
She does not give birth but carries them on her body; the female fertilizes the eggs on the male’s body and he carries them on himself

Answer from Olga Trofimova[guru]
no, I didn't know, thanks

Answer from Anatoly Petunin[guru]
Zoology had to be taught at school. although what kind of school is it now? Discovery look - a lot of interesting things

Answer from Alexa Khokhlova[guru]
The most unique feature seahorses - reproduction. A very controversial question is who, a female or a male, gives birth to cubs. In any case, the male carries the fry. On his stomach, near the anus, there are two folds of skin fused into a pouch. During the breeding season, this bag thickens and is pierced with blood vessels: this is how the male prepares to receive eggs and feed the embryos. At the same time, the female’s cloaca extends, forming a genital papilla, through which the eggs are introduced into the male’s pouch. The courtship process among pipits includes song and dance. During the mating season, seahorses sing. In any case, they make rather low sounds, reminiscent of snapping fingers. These songs intensify during the breeding season. The skate dance involves ritual walks “arm in arm” (with their tails intertwined) and graceful twirlings among the seaweed. Then the fish press against each other, at this moment the male opens the bag wide and the female puts several eggs into it. After some time, the action is repeated with the same or with another chosen one, and again the bag is replenished with several eggs. This happens until the bag is filled to the brim. The number of embryos gestated in different species ranges from 20 to 1000. The size of the eggs is approximately 2 mm. The duration of development is 20–28 days.
Skates, like other fish, have a reserve of caviar nutrients(yolk), which means the embryos have something to eat. However, a highly developed network of blood vessels was found in the walls of the bursa, functionally similar to the placenta of mammals. It can be assumed that the offspring feed not only on the yolk, but also on what the father’s blood brings them, as happens in mammals. That's why they say that the skates' mother and father switched roles. The male has a hard time with pregnancy and childbirth
This is how aquarists describe the birth of seahorses: “The pregnant male firmly grabbed the stem of the plant and began to make rhythmic movements, while simultaneously massaging the inflated belly with his muzzle. At this moment, the hole in the bag began to open little by little and several tails appeared from it. Through the thin wall of the bag one could see small heads with black eyes. Finally, one of the tails got ahead of the others and stuck out almost halfway, and a minute later, through the efforts of the pushing father, the first cub jumped out of the bag. So, with hard work, the male emptied the bag in a few minutes." But even after the fry hatch, the male carries them in the bag for some time. Bending his body upward, he opens the bag, and the fry come out of it, but in case of danger they hide there again.
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