A hippocampus (or seahorse) is a genus of fish (family species where the males get pregnant. A seahorse pregnancy lasts approximately two to three weeks. Seahorses are also unusual among fishes for being monogamous.
Hippocampus reidi : (Brazilian Seahorse) which is found in the Caribbean in coral reefs
Hippocampus sindonis : (Shiho's seahorse)
Hippocampus spinosissimus : (Hedgehog Seahorse)
Hippocampus subelongatus : (Tigersnout Seahorse or West Australian Seahorse)
Hippocampus trimaculatus : (Three-Spot Seahorse)
Hippocampus tuberculatus : (Knobby Seahorse)
Hippocampus whitei : (White's Seahorse)which is found off the coast of east Australia
Hippocampus zebra : (Zebra Seahorse)
Hippocampus zosterae : (Dwarf Seahorse) which is found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean)
Seahorse populations have been endangered in recent years by overfishing. The seahorse is used in traditional Chinese herbology. As many as 20 million seahorses a year may be caught and sold for this purpose.
Though close relatives of sea horses, sea dragons have larger bodies and leaf-like appendages which enable them to hide among floating seaweed or kelp beds. Sea dragons feed on larval fishes and amphipods, such as and small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids ("sea lice"), sucking up their prey in their small mouths. Many of these amphipods feed on the red algae that thrives in the shade of the kelp forests where the sea dragons live.
Import and export of seahorses will controlled under CITES from May 15, 2004.
In heraldry, a seahorse is depicted as a creature with the foreparts of a horse and the hindparts of a fish. See, for example, the sinister supporter of the Isle of Wight Arms.
