Captive Critters: The Lined Seahorse

The seahorse is an intriguing and fragile marine fish from the genus Hippocampus, which translates to "horse or sea monster" in ancient Greek. They are recognized for their unique horse-like heads and curled prehensile tails, enabling them to anchor themselves to seagrasses, corals, or any available structures within their diverse habitats, including oyster aquaculture gear!

LOC's Aubrey Moore spent a lot of time on the farm this summer and this extra time increases the odds of coming across unique critters.

Many of us only get to see seahorses on our screens, but these elusive fish inhabit warm waters globally, including equatorial and temperate regions along all continental coastlines. Seahorses are typically located in shallow coastal waters, often in seagrass beds, coral reefs, and mangroves. Due to their poor swimming abilities, they avoid strong currents and predators by remaining stationary and camouflaging with their surroundings. Seahorses can change colors in response to changes in their environment, diet, anxiety or stress levels, and mood.

One of the most intriguing aspects of seahorses is their reproductive process. Male seahorses have a distinctive pouch where they carry fertilized eggs until they hatch, a unique characteristic among fish. This seahorse (see photo) is likely a male as the distended belly indicates he is carrying a large brood of young.

Seahorses also exhibit monogamy, selecting lifelong partners. To reinforce their bond, seahorses engage in ritual dances with their partners every morning. These dances solidify their permanent relationship as mates, so if a seahorse loses its partner for any reason, it often takes time to find a new mate and given their relatively short lifespans, few seahorses find new partners before they die. (awww)

Here are some of the other species we find:

• Oyster Toadfish, Spotfin Butterfly Fish & Grunts,

• Juvenile Sheepshead, Gobies & Skilletfish,

• Blue Crabs & Mud Crabs,

• and other shellfish like scallops and razor clams!