Sea horse

Seahorses belong to the family of Syngnathidae. This word, is a combination of two Greek words Syn-meaning fused and Gnathus-which means jaws. Hippcampus is the genus that they belong too. Hippos means horse and campus, means sea-monster in Greek.

Facts about Seahorses:

International protection was provided to seahorses on May 15th, 2004.
Seahorses differ in color, some are orange, red, yellow, green and even grey.
Zebra stripes and spots, are two patterns that seahorses come in.
A herd, is the term a group of seahorses are known as.
Seahorses have an interior skeleton.
Seahorses are unable to curl their tail backwards.
Seahorses belong to the Teleost suborder or bony fish group.
The average lifespan of a seahorse in the wild is estimated to be 1 to 5 years.
Seahorses beat their dorsal fins back and forth to propel themselves through the water in an upright position.
The food that seahorses eat pass into their digestive systems very quickly as they do not have a stomach and teeth. As the digestion procedure in seahorses is so quick they need to constantly eat to live.
Daphnia, cyclops, larvae or mysids are small living things that seahorses feed on.
A seahorse that is two weeks old can consume 3000 to 4000 brine shrimp in a day.
Seahorses have a single mate for life. Every morning, they come together, dance, change their color, twirl around with linked tails and then separate for the rest of the day.
While mating, seahorses utter musical sounds.
Mating is usually done under a full moon.
These little creatures are at risk because about twenty-five million of them are being traded around the world, in a span of a year.



　　小海马由雄海马负责孵育。雄海马的腹部有皮囊，雌海马把卵产在这個皮囊內。卵受精后，约四十~五十天，就孵出小海马來。通常，小海马都在两公分以內。等它们成熟，离开海马爸爸的「育儿袋」后，就必须独立生活了。

　　海马属于海马科，分布在热带和亚热带的浅海中，喜欢海藻很多的地方。全身披有骨质鳞片，身长大约在十五公分左古右。游泳時，身体直立，用背鳍划水前进，速度并不快。休息时，将尾巴缠绕在海藻上。遇到小虾等甲壳类的小动物，就把他们整个吞进肚里，因为海马沒有牙齿可以咬嚼。