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Seahorses

Seahorses are named for their equine-like head and prefer to live in sheltered areas such as coral reefs. Seahorses are one of the few animal breeds where the male gives birth rather than the female.

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How are seahorses different from fish?

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A seahorses is a fish that has a long, tube-shaped mouth that looks something like the snout of a horse.

What phylum are seahorses?

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Seahorses belong to the phylum Chordata and the class Actinopterygii.

What are special adaptations for a big bellied seahorse?

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When two parties discover a mutual interest at the beginning of breeding season, they court for several days, even while others try to interfere. During this time they have been known to change color, swim side by side holding tails or grip the same strand of sea grass with their tails and wheel around in unison in what is known as their "pre-dawn dance". They eventually engage in their "true courtship dance" lasting about 8 hours, during which the male pumps water through the egg pouch on his trunk which expands and cleaves open to display an appealing emptiness. When the female's eggs reach maturity, she and her mate let go of any anchors and snout-to-snout, drift upward out of the seagrass, often spiraling as they rise. The female inserts her ovipositor into the male's brood pouch, where she deposits her eggs, which the male fertilizes. The fertilized eggs then embed in the pouch wall and become enveloped with tissues.[4] New research indicates the male releases sperm into the surrounding sea water during fertilization, and not directly into the pouch as was previously thought.[5] Most seahorse species' pregnancies lasts approximately two to three weeks. As the female squirts anywhere from dozens to thousands of eggs from a chamber in her trunk into his pouch, her body slims while his swells. Both seahorses then sink back to the bottom and she swims off. Scientists believe the courtship behavior serves to synchronize the movements of the two animals so that the male can receive the eggs when the female is ready to deposit them. The eggs are then fertilized in the father's pouch which is coursed with prolactin, the same hormone responsible for milk production in pregnant women. He doesn't supply milk, but his pouch provides oxygen as well as a controlled environment incubator. The eggs then hatch in the pouch where the salinity of the water is regulated. This prepares the newborns for life in the sea.[6] [7] Throughout the male's incubation, his mate visits him daily for "morning greetings". The female seahorse swims over for about 6 minutes of interaction reminiscent of courtship. They change color, wheel around sea grass fronds, and finally promenade, holding each other's tails. Then, the female swims away until the next morning, and the male goes back to vacuuming up food through his snout. [6] The number of young released by the male seahorse averages 100-200 for most species, but may be a low as 5 for the smaller species, or as high as 1500, with pregnancy lasting from two to four weeks, depending on the species[8] When the fry are ready to be born, the male undergoes muscular contractions to expel them from his pouch. He typically gives birth at night and is ready for the next batch of eggs by morning when his mate returns. Like almost all other fish species, seahorses do not care for their young once they are born. Infants are susceptible to death from predators or being swept into ocean currents, where they drift away from rich feeding grounds or into temperatures too extreme for their delicate bodies. Fewer than five infants of every 1,000 born survive to adulthood, helping to explain why litters are so large. The survival rates of these infants are actually fairly high compared to fish standards, because they are initially sheltered in their father's pouch during the earliest stages of development, while the eggs of most other fish are abandoned immediately after fertilization. [7] This makes the process worth the great cost to the father of incubating his offspring. This entire process costs the male a great amount of energy. This brings into question why the sexual role reversal even takes place. In an environment where one partner incurs more energy costs than the other, one would expect the lesser of the two to be the aggressor. Within the seahorse species, males are shown to be the more aggressive sex and sometimes "fight" for female attention. According to Amanda Vincent of Project Seahorse, only males tail-wrestled and even snap their heads toward each other. This discovery prompted further study in finding out whether males actually are incurring more costs than their female counterparts. To estimate the female's direct contribution, researcher Heather D. Masonjones of Amherst College performed a chemical analysis of the energy stored in each egg. Furthermore, to measure the toll that incubation takes on a male, Masonjones built a tiny respirator that records oxygen concentrations in water flowing into and out of a chamber. Before a male took on eggs, she checked his baseline need for oxygen. Then, she monitored the increase as the incubation progressed. The male's body had to work hard by the end of incubation, consuming almost a third again as much oxygen as he did before mating. To correct for oxygen used by the growing brood, Masonjones managed to keep ¼ inch-high premature seahorses alive outside the pouch so she could measure their oxygen needs. Although they undergo weeks of incubation, males directly contribute only half as much energy for offspring as females do. [6]Therefore, they do in fact fit into the widespread pattern of the less-invested sex being the "less-choosy." The reason why it is the males who undergo pregnancy rather than the females is actually not entirely known, though some researchers believe male pregnancy allows for shorter birthing intervals, hence more offspring. When looking at each gender having the ability to produce more young if they had an unlimited number of ready and willing partners, males have the potential to produce 17 percent more in a breeding season. Also, females have "time-outs" from the reproductive cycle that are 1.2 times longer than those of males. This does not seem to be based on physiology, rather mate choice. When the female's eggs are ready, she must lay them in a few hours or else she has to eject them onto the sea floor which is a huge cost to her physically, as her eggs amount to about a third of her body weight. To protect against unwillingly losing a clutch, the female demands a long courtship period. Furthermore, the daily greetings help to cement the bond between the pair. Another study conducted by Amanda Vincent of Project Seahorse shows the importance of this daily ritual. She kept a female in a tank with two males and when the female filled one male's pouch with eggs he was then taken away, while she was left with the other male (the one not impregnated). During the weeks of her mate's pregnancy, the female and her tankmate greeted each other daily, clinging to the same bit of grass and changing color, but according to Vincent did not display signs of serious courtship. When the original mate had given birth he was returned to the tank. The female then had a choice between him and the other tankmate. While both males expressed enthusiasm for her attention, even tail wrestling and whacking each other, in all six tests the female rejected her original mate and presented the next clutch of eggs to the tankmate that she had greeted each day. [6] The importance of the daily meeting is extremely high in maintaining their monogamous relationship. Although monogamy within species is not common, it does appear to exist for some. In this case, the mate-guarding hypothesis may be an explanation. This hypothesis states that "males remain with a single female because of ecological factors that make male parental care and protection of offspring especially advantageous." [9] Because the rates of survival for newborn seahorses are so low, incubation is essential at the beginning stages of life. Though not proven, males could have taken on this role because of the time period in which it takes females to produce their eggs. If the males carry the offspring while the females gather the nutrients needed to produce new eggs (which is again, 1/3 of their body weight), then they can continually reproduce batch after batch together, depending on one another for efficiency in spreading both of their genes.

How do turtles excrete or rid waste?

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They take a day or two to digest the food. Then it turns into unwanted waste and they body must get rid of it. So the turtle simply excretes the waste through the rectum and moves on.

Which sea horse carries the eggs in its pouch?

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It's the female who make the eggs, but she deposits them in a pouch on the male seahorse's stomach for him to carry while the eggs develop.

When the eggs hatch, the pouch opens, and tiny, tiny sea horses swim out to start their own lives.

In one birthing how many young does the sea horse produce?

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male sea horses produce 100-200 baby sea horses! once a male sea horse even produced 1,257 young in one day! amazing, right?!?!

Do Seahorses have a nose?

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No.They don't have one because there body, is made out of slime.

Is sea horse reproduction asexual or sexual?

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Asked by Wiki User

They are sexual..Both sexes are found in the species.

Do seahorses carry their babies in a pouch?

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Asked by Wiki User

Not really.

Seahorse females deposit their eggs into a male's pouch, who carries them until they hatch. But once hatched, the babies are outta there.

How many feet does a seahorse have?

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Asked by 1david12

2 cm to 50 cm 2 cm to 50 cm ha ha

What is the structural adaptation on a seahorse?

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seahorses are made to live so they have a hard bilt body

How does pygmy seahorse skin adapt to the coral around them?

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they have muscular valves in their ears and nostrils so they can close them underwtaer. they use their tail to make trails and to spread feoces in the water. their spine slopes forward to make it easier to forage th forest floors xox :D

Could seahorse adapt to live out of water?

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Because of a seahorse's enormous penis, it has the ability to shoot webs from its testes. In a Spiderman-esque fasion, it swings from ocean to ocean eating its prey and urinating on their offspring afterwards. The seahorse is truly an animal to be fearful of.

What are examples of cartilage fish?

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SHARKS AND RAYS HAVE CARTILAGE SKELETONS,WHICH MEANS THEY ARE VERY FLEXIBLE. I THINK.(peytonallentranum)

Are seahorses nekton?

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Asked by Wiki User

yes

What is the long tail for the seahorse do?

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The tail will help to grab the prey to survive.

Hope this helps.

Actually, seahorses aren't big predators. They don't use their tails for catching prey, they eat mostly small crustaceans that happen to float by. Anyways...

They use their tails to wrap around and hold on to seaweed. That's about it. Hope this helped. ;D

How long do baby seahorses stay in their dads pouch?

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they stay in thier dads pouch for about 4-45 days at maxium

How do leafy sea dragons adapt?

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They are fish - they take in water via their mouth (fish don't use nostrils for breathing) and pass it through their gills where the oxygen is sepeerated and taken into the body and the waste water is pumped out the gills.

If sea horse are called as poor swimmers than why they are named as sea horse?

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Asked by Wiki User

the y are not really calle sea horses the are calle d sea fish

How old does a seahorse have to be to reproduce?

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Asked by Wiki User

Of course they do. If they didn't, they'd be extinct.

Is a big belly seahorse an omnivore?

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Asked by Wiki User

I really don't know srry

What special features does a seahorse have so it helps it survive?

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Sea weed adapts by little organisms with it. It has little pores inside of the sea weed that makes it adapt to the temperature of the water. It tends to live at the bottom of the water source. It lives in salt and fresh water

How many colors do seahorses change?

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sea horses can change to all of the colors of the rainbow