What is sea-horse?
Sea-horse
The strange creatures with large heads resembling the horse’s head are in fact bony fish that belong to the family of Syngnathidae. Because of its head it has been rightly named as a sea-horse. Its body is covered with rough bony plates. Its tail is just like that of a snake. Sea-horse vary in size (10cm to 30cm) and colour but they all have the same basic shape. They are found in all the oceans of the world. There are 100 species, which may be white, yellow red or blue. The sea-horse swims in an upright position using its dorsal fin to drive it along. The fin vibrates very rapidly (up to 35 times a sec.) yet it is the slowest moving fish. It hovers in the water propelling itself and even at top speed it would take a sea-horse about 2.5 days to cover a distance of 1 Km.
The sea-horse is unusual in another way. The female seahorse has a long egg-laying organ which is used to place the eggs in sea-horse pouch on the male belly. During courtship the female place her eggs into this pouch and the male then fertilize them. The male sea-horse can take care of up to three broods every year with as many as 50 eggs in each brood. The eggs hatch in the pouch of the male and then the tiny young sea-horse leave the pouch about five weeks after the eggs are laid. Sea-horse face the least danger from its enemies because other sea fishes do not like to eat them at all.