When many people hear the name "seahorse", they immediately think of the galloping horses on the grassland, because not only does the name of seahorse look like a horse, but its head is almost exactly the same as a horse's head. However, seahorses are not horses, but a type of fish. The details are as follows:

The seahorse is a kind of fish

The "loving father" of the animal world

The terrible hunting master, the seahorse is a kind of fish

Seahorses are small marine animals. Their body length is generally 5 to 30 centimeters. Because their heads are curved like a horse’s head, they are named “seahorses”. Although they move very slowly, they can quickly capture copepods that are good at hiding, and they can be regarded as "super hunters" in the ocean.

Although they do look a bit like horses in appearance, they are strange, small sea-dwelling fish.

There are not many species of seahorses in the world, and they are mainly distributed in the western Atlantic and Pacific regions. Not only do they have gills unique to fish, they also have very small pectoral and dorsal fins. As long as we observe carefully, we will find that the seahorse's dorsal fin is constantly swinging in the water, very fast, but it is too small to be easily discovered.

Of course, the appearance of seahorses is still different from that of ordinary fish. Their tail fins have degenerated and become a protruding object that can be curled like a monkey's tail. The seahorse's tail can hook onto any protruding object, thereby anchoring its body. Their fins are small and transparent, like they are constantly oscillating, and they don't allow them to move quickly.

Fortunately, seahorses have learned the "camouflage technique". They can use body color camouflage and hardened leathery skin to disguise themselves as a harbor or coral according to changes in different environments, thereby avoiding the enemy's pursuit. .

Biologists classify seahorses as fish, mainly because they have the same characteristics as fish, such as living in water, breathing by gills, swimming by fins, and having a spine composed of vertebrae, etc. These characteristics all indicate that they are fish, and even if they wear "horse heads", it cannot change this fact. The "loving father" of the animal world

In the animal world, female pregnancy and childbirth seem to be a matter of course, but this natural law cannot be applied to seahorses. Because within this special group of seahorses, pregnancy and childbirth are all things that male seahorses need to do.

Every breeding season, male seahorses will take the initiative to express their love for female seahorses, and the way of expressing love is also very special, like a ballet dancer spinning in the water. At the same time, the color of the male seahorse's body will also change. As long as the female seahorse agrees to this "marriage", they will begin to mate and give birth to their next generation.

However, the process of mating is that the female seahorse lays her eggs into the male seahorse's "pouch", where fertilization is completed. Seahorse dads are the "loving fathers" of the animal world. They use the placental fluid in the "pouch" to raise the embryos, which not only provides enough oxygen and nutrients for the new life, but also removes the little guys' excrement.

As the pregnancy progresses, the liquid in the "pouch" will also change accordingly, gradually approaching sea water. This can prevent differences in osmotic pressure from harming young lives.

After the male seahorse carries the pregnancy to term, it will give birth.

Seahorse births usually take place at night. At first, the baby seahorses come out of the father's "pouch" one by one, and finally countless baby seahorses spray out of the "pouch" like fire extinguishers. come out. The newborn seahorses are microscopic in size but similar in shape to their parents. They begin to live independently after birth, including finding food on their own. Terrifying masters of hunting

Seahorses move very slowly, but they are as good as any fish in hunting.

Because they swim very slowly, they can only cling to the bottom of the sea like seaweed and anchor themselves with their curly tails. However, their main food is the favorite of all marine life - copepods.

These creatures are very sensitive to slight water ripples caused by predators. As long as they find an enemy approaching, they will quickly escape at a speed exceeding 500 times their own speed per second. In comparison, a cheetah can run only 30 times its own length per second. If humans ran at the escape speed of copepods, the speed would reach a terrifying 3,200 kilometers per hour.

However, seahorses can use their bowed necks as springs to twist their heads forward to capture prey. This also limits the effective distance they can capture prey to only the length of their necks, that is, 0.1 cm. In this way, seahorses use the special shape of their heads to slowly approach their prey and then capture it, and their success rate can reach more than 90%. This is beyond the reach of other fish. Because the seahorse's mouth is located at the end of the long snout, when they approach prey, they can keep the water near the snout motionless. This is the secret to their ability to successfully approach and capture prey.