by Sharmal Kelambi

Created on: July 19, 2011   Last Updated: July 25, 2011

Seashores (or the Hippocampus sp.) are a unique set of creatures in the animal kingdom. Though they look quite strange in comparison to a normal fish, they are in fact fish, who swim rather vertically than horizontally. There are about 32 different species of seahorse and their sizes differ from 1 centimeter to 30 centimeters. They have prehensile tails to cling to underwater vegetation, a tubercle mouth for sucking in food and protective bony plates in their skins as a defensive mechanism.

Besides their strange looks, seahorses have one of the most unique reproductive habits in the animal world. Unlike all other creatures, it’s the male seahorse that gets pregnant and carries the maturing eggs around. Some scientists believe  they mate for life (show monogamy), which is not a common practice among fish.

- Courtship

The mating ritual of the sea horses is known as courtship. It is so called as the male and female perform a dance up to eight hours in successive days before mating. The selection of partners is a strange business as well.  Males, which are less in both size and color, fight with their snorts and wrestle with their tails to get a female partner. Females on the other hand, display bright colors to attract males.

Once the partners are selected, courtship begins. Here the male and female partners swim around side by side, holding each other’s tail and changing colors as they go. It is a glamorous site to watch if you ever get the chance to see it. This goes on for few days and up to eight hours.  The use of the courtship is thought to be that it allows the partners to synchronize their movements during mating.

- Mating

During mating, female seahorse using her ovipositor, inserts the eggs to the male’s brood pouch. Male release the sperms to the nearby sea water, which fertilizes the eggs as they enter into the pouch. Once the eggs get entered they get covered by a layer of spongy tissue. The female can deposit up to 1500-2000 eggs at a time, depending on the species. But she may not deposit all of them at once to avoid getting exhausted. The male take these intervals to adjust the eggs in place so that all the eggs can be accommodated in the pouch.

After the mating the female swims away while the male remains. The incubation period ranges from 9-45 days, again depending on the species. The males are known to become quite aggressive while they are pregnant and as any mother would do, male seahorses produce the needed

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