The Mango Vol 1 Issue 6

miles per hour, and the fastest fish of all, the sailfish, has been clocked at 68 mph. The dorsal fin on a seahorse is on the small side, so no matter how madly it flutters, even at 50 times per second, they go slow, steering with pectoral fins. They do not have a caudal or tail fin like the more common horizontally-structured fish. They can, however, move up and down and backwards. They are more often found sitting still anchored by their tail wrapped around something. However, if they connect to moving seaweed or another mobile object, they can travel to new places in the sea. What they lack in speed, they might make up for in camouflage and stealth. They move through water almost silently, and while most of them are not large, one can eat a few thousand brine shrimp in a single day. Seahorses range in size from around half an inch to a little more than one foot tall. Meal Time Meal time is all the time for seahorses even though they do not have a stomach. Despite being carnivorous, they do not have teeth. They eat somewhere around 30 to 50 times a day existing on very small fish and planktonic copepods or little crustaceans. Often, they simply lie in wait for food to pass by, sucking it up through their snout and swallowing whole. Given that they swim so s-l-o-w-l-y, it would be a waste of energy to pursue anything, because everything is faster than they are. But not everything – or even anything else - is as uniquely engineered and remarkably styled for vertical life in the sea. And dancing in the morning is a great way to start every day, underwater or not. Perhaps seahorses have taken to heart something Sandra Bullock said: The rule is you have to dance a little bit in the morning before you leave the house because it changes the way you walk [swim] out in the world [sea].

Romance and Reproduction

Seahorses appear to be monogamous for a while with elaborate dating, mating and gyrating practices. In the beginning, they intertwine their tails, engage in a dance routine for days while changing colors due to chromatophores in their skin cells. The color alterations aid in their being able to camouflage themselves with their underwater surroundings in daily life. Once a couple is formed – and we do not know for sure which one makes the final decision – they greet one another every day with more rhythmic dancing which can go a few minutes or last a few hours. Often they will hold tail tips and swim together. Akin to kangaroos, seahorses have a pouch, albeit a much smaller one and only on the male seahorse. Only female kangaroos have a pouch. And herein lies one of the most fascinating facts about seahorses: The male seahorse carries the eggs in his brood pouch during a 10 to 45-day gestation period, depending on species. His pregnant abdomen expands over that time. Then he experiences contractions and hatches and expels up to 1,000 “frys” each about the size of a jelly bean. The frys are on their own, sticking together for safety, but an estimated 99% or more do not make it to adulthood. Not to be idly un-pregnant, the male, which normally gives birth at night, reconnects with his lady seahorse in the morning. They’ll dance their little jig, and she will deposit more hundreds or thousands of eggs into his brood pouch. Throughout gestation, she will come for a little tango, boogie, waltz and frolic with him every morning. Swimming The swimming ability of the seahorse is quite clumsy given their physical structure, making them the slowest swimmer of all fish. Top speed is 5 feet an hour for a seahorse. Medium fresh water fish move around 7

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