The sea horse
was named after their head. Seahorses have two close
relatives they are the pipe fish and the shrimp fish and
the Sea Dragon, they belong to a family called
Syngnathidae.
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Habitat
Seahorses
live in clear, clean, warm water were it is
shallow. Seahorses swim in and out coral reefs.
Seahorses come from 6 different
continents.
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Appearance
Seahorses vary widely
in size from 4 cm - 35 cm. The seahorse eyes can swivel
independently of each other to enable the seahorse to
watch prey without moving. The seahorse camouflages by
adopting the colours of surrounding weed.
Breeding
The female lays her
eggs in the male's pouch, where they hatch and develop.
The male will take the eggs until his pouch is full. The
eggs are pink in color. Size may be from .5 to 1.5
millimeters in size depending on the species. Eggs are
release from the pouch after thirty to fifty days
depending on the species. All newborn seahorses are up to
1 cm in length.
Movement
The Dorsal fin of a
seahorse beats 35 times a second to enable the seahorse
to sift position. The Seahorses is the only fish that
swim standing up.
