Sea Horse (Hippocampus)

Care Level : Difficult

Color : Yellow, Green, Brown, Red, Orange, Purple

Diet : Carnivore

Water Conditions : sg 1.020-1.025, 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4

Lifespan (in wild) : 3 years

Weight : 200g

Body size : 2 to 35 cm (about 0.8 to 14 inches)

Top speed : 150cm per hour

Origin : Indian and Pacific Oceans, Pacific, Indonesia 

Family : Syngnathidae

The Latin name for seahorse is Hippocampus which means “Horse Caterpillar”

Seahorses are fish. There are around 36 seahorse species, which are found in tropical and temperate coastal waters where they swim upright among seaweed and other plants.

Seahorses vary in size, ranging in length from about 2 to 35 cm (about 0.8 to 14 inches). They live in water, breath through gills and have a swim bladder. However they do not have caudal fins and have a long snake-like tail. They also have a neck and a snout that points down.

Seahorses’ bodies are covered in tiny, spiny plates, all the way from their head down to their curled, flexible tail. The tail can grasp objects, which comes in handy when these cool critters want to anchor themselves to vegetation. To move forward through the water, seahorses use their dorsal fin (back fin). To move up and down, they adjust the volume of air in a tiny pocket inside their body, called a ‘swim bladder’.

Seahorses are poor swimmers. They rely on their dorsal fin beating at 30-70 times per second to propel it along. Pectoral fins either side of the head help with stability and steering. A master of camouflage, these fab fish can be incredibly difficult to spot. Camouflage not only helps the seahorse avoid predators, such as crabs and other fish, it helps it to be a predator, too.

Seahorses should be kept in an aquarium with low flow and placid tank mates. They are slow feeders, so fast, aggressive feeders will leave them without food. Seahorses can coexist with many species of shrimp and other bottom-feeding creatures. Gobies also make good tank-mates. Keepers are generally advised to avoid eels, tangs, triggerfish, squid, octopus, and sea anemones.

The male is the only creature where the male has a true reversed pregnancy. The female transfers her eggs to the male which he self-fertilises in his pouch. The number of eggs can vary from 50-150 for smaller species to 1500 for larger species.Less than 0.5% of infants survive to adulthood, explaining why litters are so large. 

They receive everything they need in the pouch from oxygen to food. Gestation time varies from 14 days to 4 weeks. Giving birth can be a long process with contractions lasting up to 12 hours.

Feeding on small crustaceans, seahorses are super-skilled ambush predators. Rather than chasing their food, they wait, unnoticed, for prey to pass by. They then suck their unsuspecting victim though their tube-like mouth, before swallowing it whole. Seahorses eat small crustacea such as Mysis Shrimp. An adult eats 30-50 times a day.