Its body is wrapped in armor formed by bone ring, its tail bends forward and can be rolled up, its head is horsehead-shaped and forms a certain angle with its body, its kiss is long and tubular, and its mouth is very small. A dorsal fin consists of fins. The eyes can move independently. Different body types, about 4 ~ 30 cm long (1.5 ~ 12 inch). Poor swimming ability, generally living in coastal areas, seaweed or other aquatic plants, crawling around with their tails. Stay upright when swimming, and rise or sink by pushing and changing the air content in the swim bladder with each fin. Feeding on small organisms inhaled rapidly in the mouth. The male fish carries the fertilized egg, and the female fish lays the egg in the pouch at the tail of the male fish until it hatches. When the young fish hatch, the male fish wriggles and releases the young fish from the only opening of the pouch. Hippocampus is a rare aquarium ornamental animal. Its species is the sea horse, which is smaller than other species. European brown seahorse; Pacific hippocampus (H. kuda); Australian medium-sized white seahorse (H. whitei).
20 13 found that although the hippocampus moves slowly, it can capture fast-moving and hidden copepods efficiently. [ 1]
gingkgo
Japanese hippocampus
Latin scientific name
hippocampus japonicus
boundary
animal kingdom
door
Chordata
summary
fish
eye
Spinibarbus barbatus
suborder
Syngnathus
The branch of academic or vocational research.
Sclerotinidae
belong to
hippocampus japonicus
Distribution area
Atlantic, Europe, Pacific, Australia
design feature
The hippocampus is flat on the side of the head, and there are two nostrils on each side of the head. The head is bent at right angles to the body, and the fish is thick and flat, completely surrounded by bone rings. The chest and abdomen are prominent, and the trunk is composed of 10 ~ 12 bone ring, with a general body length of about 15 ~ 30 cm. The tail is slender and has four corners, and the tail tip can be curled and often curled; The head is bent, forming a large obtuse angle or right angle with the trunk, with a prominent crown at the top and a short tip at the crown end; Kiss is tubular; Small mouth, end position; Small branchial foramen; The whole body is completely wrapped by membranous bone, the dorsal fin is spineless, and there are no ventral fins and caudal fins. Dorsal fin is located between trunk and tail; Short gluteal fin; Thoracic fin developed; No caudal fin; The male fish has a pouch on the ventral side of the tail, in which the eggs hatch and can reproduce for 2-3 generations a year.
The darker the hippocampus, the better. It should have a faint seafood flavor, and the single one will not be too heavy (you can break it to see if there is mud in the middle). Very dry, refreshing and not sticky!
morphological character
Its mouth is very sharp, tubular and can't be opened. It can only suck small animals in the water.
For food. Its eyes are also very special; You can rotate up and down, left and right, or back and forth respectively. However, its own body does not need to rotate, so it can see in all directions with smart eyes. Sometimes, one eye looks forward and the other eye looks back, which other animals can't do except dragonflies and chameleons. The hippocampus is the least like a fish, and it combines the characteristics of horses, shrimps and elephants. It has a horse-shaped head, dragonfly eyes, a shrimp-like body, a nose-like tail, a crown-like horn, a head bent at right angles to the body, a body wearing armor and a vertical swimming style. It is the only case of male childbirth in the world. Its fins are not easy to see with the naked eye. But with high-speed photography and careful observation, you can see moving thorns. These spines can move back and forth 70 times in one second. According to the wave from one end of the dorsal fin to the other, the hippocampus can ride this wave freely back and forth or up and down. [3]
3 lifestyle editor
Japanese hippocampus
Because of its mimicry adaptability, hippocampus has a special habit, and it likes to live in the subtidal waters where algae or seaweed breed. Sex is lazy, often winding its curly tail around the stems and branches of seaweed, and sometimes hanging upside down on floating seaweed or other objects, drifting with the flow. Even if you temporarily leave the entanglement because of eating or other reasons, after swimming for a certain distance, you find other objects attached to it. The swimming posture of hippocampus is very beautiful. The fish stands upright in the water, relying entirely on the dorsal fin and pectoral fin to fluctuate at high frequency (10 times per second) and swim slowly (only 1 ~ 3 meters per minute). The activity of hippocampus is usually in the daytime (morning and afternoon), but it is still at night. When the water quality deteriorates, the oxygen is insufficient, or the seahorse is attacked by the enemy, it often gurgles due to the contraction of the pharyngeal muscle, and sends a signal of "calling for help" to farmers, but it also makes a sound when eating bait on the water surface, which should be distinguished.
American researchers have found that the hippocampus moves slowly, but it is a master at catching prey. Their main prey is copepods.
In fish, the hippocampus has a unique curved neck, which looks like a horse with a long nose and mouth. The overall shape of seahorses, coupled with the absence of caudal fins, makes them the slowest swimming animals on earth. They can't swim fast, usually like seaweed, tied to the bottom of the sea with curly tails.
Because all marine life likes to eat copepods, they are extremely sensitive to the fluctuation of water flow pattern caused by the approach of carnivores. Once copepods sense that the enemy is approaching, they can swim 500 times their own length every second. In contrast, the cheetah, which is famous for its running speed, travels at a speed of only 30 times its length per second.
However, the hippocampus moves slowly, but it can effectively capture copepods that move quickly and are good at hiding. Hippocampus must use its bow-shaped neck as a spring and twist its head forward to catch prey, which also limits its effective distance to catch food, which is only equivalent to the length of its neck, that is, 0. 1 cm. However, the hippocampus can use the special shape of the head to quietly approach the prey and then capture it. The probability of success is over 90%. The mouth of the hippocampus is located at the end of the long nose. When moving towards the prey, the waterline near the snout hardly moves, so it can sneak up on each other and successfully hunt. [ 1]
Eating habits
Japanese hippocampus
Hippocampus swallows food through the extension of gill cover and kiss, and the size of bait does not exceed the diameter of kiss. It has certain selectivity to the kind and freshness of bait. The feeding sight distance of hippocampus is only about 1 m, so the bait should be placed in the place where it often gathers. Hippocampus in natural sea area mainly feeds on small crustaceans, including barnacle larvae and tendrils of copepods, larvae and adults of shrimps, fireflies, mysids and hooked shrimps. Under the condition of artificial feeding, the effect of feeding mysis and sakura shrimp is the best, followed by Boda and Acropoda. Freshwater cladocera can also be eaten, but attention should be paid to avoid rapid death in seawater and pollution of water quality.
The food intake of hippocampus is closely related to water temperature and water quality. In a suitable temperature range, the higher the water temperature, the greater the food intake and the faster the digestion. When the water quality is poor, the food intake decreases or even stops. Under normal circumstances, the daily food intake of hippocampus accounts for about 10% of body weight. Hippocampus has a large one-time food intake and strong hunger tolerance, and the hunger tolerance time from newborn to adult fish can reach 4 ~ 132 days.
Exercise method
The structure and function of hippocampus tail are very different from other fish. At rest, the hippocampus uses the curling ability of its tail to wrap it around the stems and branches of seaweed. Therefore, most seahorses inhabit deep-sea algae. Swimming posture is also very special. Head up, body slightly tilted upright in the water, completely relying on dorsal fin and pectoral fin movement. The fan-shaped dorsal fin plays the role of wave propulsion.