Hippocampus (which means "Horse Caterpillar") Seahorses are fish. Seahorses have excellent eyesight When they find food they suck it up through their snouts like a vacuum cleaner. Seahorses pair for life. They meet first thing in the morning to reinforce their pair bonding with an elaborate courtship display. The male is the only creature where the male has a true reversed pregnancy. The female transfers her eggs to the male which he self fertilises in his pouch Baby seahorses are known as fry and when they are born they are totally on their own. Seahorses can change colour very quickly and match any surroundings in which it finds itself. Seahorses are poor swimmers.. Seahorses live in shallow weedy areas especially eel grass beds. In winter they move into deeper waters to escape the rough weather.
Seahorses are under threat worldwide for three main reasons:
1. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Trade takes in excess of up to 150 million seahorses a year from the wild and these are used for all types of medicine.
2. The Curio Trade takes approximately one million seahorses from the wild. Along with shells and starfish; they are deliberately taken from the sea and left to die in the boiling sun. They are then sold as souvenirs, sad and sorrowful reminder of once beautiful creatures.
3. The pet trade takes an estimated one million seahorses from the wild and It is thought that less than 1,000 survive more than six weeks, very often suffering a slow and possibly painful death.
