Hippocampus Zebra
Zebra seahorse or Hippocampus zebra is a cool looking sea horse. The creature is endemic to Australia, that means it can only be found in seas near Australia. It lives in the coral reefs with other colorful animals. The animal lives within the depth range of 5 to 70 m. You can see them near the coast of Queensland and Western Australia.
There are 54 types or species of seahorse or Hippocampus in our oceans now. The horse or zebra shaped creature has also a curled tail. It seems impossible that these creatures are actually fish.
Zebra seahorse uses his curled tail as an anchor. It helps it to keep itself firmly attached with coral or sea weed. Look at the above photo to understand.
Here is a lonely zebra seahorse. He seems sad. Maybe, he has lost his love recently. Do you know that the seahorses met for life? They are the most romantic among all the fishes.
This Hippocampus zebra is looking for something on the ocean floor. Actually, he is trying to find some food. They eat bottom crawling small crustaceans. Copepods are their favorite. The funnel shaped mouth is used to suck the prey. Their can move very quickly and silently without alerting the prey. They produce a clicking sound when they suck a prey. They are small but very efficient hunters.
The mail seahorses have a pouch to carry eggs and babies. After the mating, the female lay eggs inside the males pouch. The father carries more than 1500 eggs for about a month. The eggs are hatched inside it. After that the father release the small seahorses into the sea. After that the father and his offspring do not care for each other. Here is also a short video to show you the animal, watch it.
Did you notice a curious thing that the zebra seahorses of the 1st photo looks different from the rest. There is something wrong in the details, is not it? Look closely and you will know, I'm not going to tell you.
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