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WHITE'S SEAHORSE FACTS |
Description
Usually very well camouflaged in various shades of brown, grey and black, usually matching its surroundings. It has an elongate, bony body and long snout and tail. Body length up to 20 cm.
Commonly seen holding onto the mesh of swimming enclosures, seagrass fronds or sponges, holding them in place for feeding or for stabilisation during turbulent water conditions. It feeds on mysids (small shrimp-like crustaceans), which it sucks in through the mouth and up the long tube-like snout. The male fertilises the eggs and cares for them for about three weeks (depending upon several factors including the temperature). During this time, he aerates the pouch, and most remarkably of all, nourishes the eggs through a capillary network in the pouch with his own 'placental fluids'. At the end of the 'pregnancy', the male gives birth to 100-250 fully formed young seahorses of about 1 cm in length, which swim away to care for themselves. The male then 'becomes pregnant' again almost straight away.
Author credit: Mark McGrouther / Australian Museum
Habitat
Shallow temperate waters in seagrass, algae beds and under wharves in depths down to about 25 m.
Food
Carnivore
Range
Southern Australia
Species Description is from Museums Field Guide, Atlas of Living Australia at website at https://lists.ala.org.au Licensed under Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Classification
| Class: | Actinopterygii | | Order: | Syngnathiformes | | Family: | Syngnathidae | | Genus: | Hippocampus | | Species: | whitei | | Common Name: | White's Seahorse |
Relatives in same Genus
Bigbelly Seahorse (H. abdominalis)
Pygmy Seahorse (H. bargibanti)
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