Seahorses

The beautiful colored seahorses belong to the most magnificent and most remarkable organisms of the seas. Actually a seahorse is quite normal fish, coming along only in a very special dress. There are about 35 different species of seahorses spread all over the world, but only a small spectrum of this variety is frequently imported for aquarist purposes. While the smallest species, the dwarf seahorse, is just 1.5 inch in lenght, others achieve a body length up to 14 inch (giant seahorse). As charming as the appearance of a seahorse is the majestic and graceful way it swims. The optical attraction of these creatures is increased by the contrast of their colours to the green of the eelgrasses and seaweeds in which most of the seahorses live. The sex of a seahorse is easy to detect: male seahorses have a pouch below the chest area. Unfortunately some of the coloured seahorses turn pale by the time. A good example is the female seahorse on the photo above: at the moment of purchase she was brightly orange coloured, but now - 20 months later - she´s only quite tenderly coloured. Perhaps one reason is the unbalanced diet under aquarium conditions. There are also other reasons for a seahorse to change its colour. Some time ago I had a rose-pink colored male in my tank. A few weeks later I purchased a bang-yellow female with small red points all over her body. The male seahorse fell in love at once for the new beauty queen - and a few days later simulated accurately her colouring - even the red points were copied! Unfortunately the male suffered from a unknown disease some months later and died. The female seahorse lived after the death of the male no more 24 hours - too largely was apparently the grief over the death of her partner. Seahorses eat by a quite special snatch-sucking movement of their snout. This suction movement is so strong that a clearly audible noise develops and even for fodder, which exceeds the snout diameter by far (for example large ghost shrimp), is easily torn and in-sucked. Immediately after aspirating the booty food remainders withdraw in form of a breath-fine nebula cloud from the sides of the seahorses head, it seems as if its head steams. Before a seahorse catches its food however, time goes by. The seahorses watches its potential booty quite exactly. Already a few days old babies look exactly at each piece of plankton or brine shrimp before the suck it. But: If the animals made however only once their choice and the booty tries to escape, the otherwise so leisurely coming along seahorses transform suddenly into fast and agile floats chasing the potential food until they catch it. Typically for the Tigertails (H. comes, picture above) is their long muzzle. Unlike many other species of seahorses the Tigertails sit for hours in front of or beneath live rocks and stick their snout into each hole and crack. They pursue booty only rarely but wait patiently for the fodder coming along. Besides they get on other seahorses nerves by permanently hanging on them and only hardly been shaken off. Seahorses get rid of their excrements in an elegant way by doing a 360° turn around the horizontal axis like a dancer.