This month’s article series will be about…
The island of Saint Lucia! It is its own country. From its closest point to the mainland it is 186.04 Nautical/Marine miles (214.091009 miles or 344.54608 kilometers) from mainland Venezuela. It is also 1314.27 Nautical/Marine miles (1512.434905 miles or 2434.02804 kilometers) from mainland Florida. It exists in the Caribbean & is one of the safest Caribbean islands to visit. It has a beautiful bustling ecosystem that is full of colour & many different strange species. Since it is in a tropical area & also it has many oceanic nutrients, it is incredibly appealing to many species for all sorts of purposes. This makes it incredibly biodiverse. One of the interesting species that are found here, is the slender sea horse. It is not found here for part of the year due to migration cycles, it does not live around Saint Lucia year-round. Some people even say that there is a sea horse mania due to the high concentration of them. In this article, we will discuss the life of the slender seahorse, the mating procedures, tactics, practices, & cycles of the slender sea horse, the distribution of the sea horse, & the scientific details of the sea horse. With that being said, let us delve into the slender sea horse of Saint Lucia.
The Lives Of The Slender Sea Horse
The Slender Sea Horse was discovered in 1933. It is unknown who exactly discovered it as it was described in a scientific report but the author did not clearly take credit for its discovery. Slender Sea Horses are usually a maximum height of 6.9 inches (17.526 centimeters) for both genders. They do not have an age where they reach maturity, but rather a height with that height being at 3.1 inches (7.874 Centimeters). They usually weigh between 7 ounces & 1 pound (0.198447 to 0.453592 kilograms), this does not change by gender. Its average life span is 2.5 years however this may change depending on the environment. Sea horses are incredibly socially smart & do often form emotional bonds & communicate with each other. They are incredibly social & often live in herds when captured, however they often do live in solitude in the wild. They do have some capacity for memory as they often remember humans who have taken care of them & they remember each other. They also form social hierarchies in herds. They also can form a trust for each other & humans. This species has existed for about 13 million years as those are our oldest fossils of them. Their diet usually consists of krill, copepods, plankton, fish larvae, & occasionally shrimp. Small marine crustaceans are also a common part of their diet. They will also consume any types of small edibles that are around them that they can consume. They are not cannibalistic in any capacity whatsoever. They will often eat up to 3000 pieces of food per day. This is not a result of an accelerated metabolism. The predators they encounter depend on the areas that they are in, however the most common ones for the Saint Lucia population are crabs, larger fish, sharks, & sting rays. Slender Sea Horses are not very territorial & will not fight over territory. Their territories that they do claim often overlap into each other. These territories are often at a size of 1,100 square feet (102.1933 square meters). They are not often aggressive to each other or to humans if left unprovoked. They are not endangered and are categorized as “Not Threatened” on the IUCN list. Besides mating, they often do not engage with other sea horses. They are often yellow brown, or white in colour. However they can be two-toned. A good way to identify them is that they have small black spots along their bodies that other sea horses do not have. The males have a smooth pouch & the females do not. Its head is horse-like & curves down, they also have a longer snout than other sea horse species.
The Mating Procedures, Cycles, Tactics, & Practices Of The Slender Sea Horse
Slender sea horses mate via sexual reproduction. They mate underwater via internal fertilization. They do not have a specific age, but rather a size that they reach sexual maturity at. That size is 3 inches long. They are not hermaphroditic. Seahorses are monogamous & will form emotional bonds with each other. They stay together for their entire lives after the initial courtship ritual. They have an interesting courtship ritual, in which the male may change colour & inflate his smooth pouch. This pouch is located at the base of his tail. The female & male will then perform a sort of dramatic dance around each other. In this dance they may flutter their fins, synchronize tail movements, & twirl around each other. It is not clear how long this dance is actually supposed to last, however, can last for up to a few days before they begin to mate. After this dance is performed the female will deposit her eggs into the male’s pouch. The female will use her ovipositor in order to do so. The male will then fertilize the eggs, there are usually about 1,600 eggs that will be deposited. However not all of these eggs will hatch or reach adulthood. These eggs are usually 1.2 millimeters (0.0472441 inches or 0.12 centimeters) in diameter. The eggs will take on average 2 weeks to hatch. However, it may take up to 30 days for the father to birth the juveniles. During this period the male will regulate the salinity level in his abdomen to the outside salinity in order to prepare the babies for the salinity once they are birthed. Once the male is ready to give birth to them, his abdomen will open & expel the juvenile seahorses into the ocean. These children will look almost identical to their parents as soon as they have been released. However, some may not be fully developed & still be curled up & covered in egg membrane. This will most likely not affect them later in life. It is not clear the exact percentage of how many of the eggs are actually fertilized & come out alive. It is also not clear what happens to the unfertilized eggs that don’t come out. After they are birthed, the father & mother will not continue to partake in the babies’ lives & will leave to have another group of children. After this, only 0.5% of the children will survive to adulthood to have their own children. It is not clear how many groups of children they will have per year. They also do not have a specific mating season. It is also not clear at what age they are most fertile.
The Distribution Of The Slender Sea Horse
Slender sea horses are found all throughout the Caribbean. They seem to prefer warmer waters as they are found in higher concentrations around the Caribbean, Brazil, & Venezuela. However, they are found as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Another reason for them being in the tropics is that there is more flora to blend in with as their main means of defense is camouflage. They reproduce quickly, so this may be a reason why they are found in very many places. Food is also readily available in the tropics so that may be a contributing factor. They do have a bodily cooling system which gives them a bit of freedom when choosing an environment. They have shown signs of migrating further north so in the future we may have a different idea of what environment they prefer.
The image above depicts a map of the distribution of Hippocampus Reidi.
The Scientific Detailings Of The Slender Sea Horse
The Slender Sea Horse is incredibly interesting for many reasons but the most well-known of them all is that the male gets pregnant & gives birth instead of the female. This is a trait that is only found in sea horses & sea dragons. This is due to an interesting attribute, the male has a pouch that the female releases her eggs into. In turn, the male fertilizes the eggs & once he is ready, an opening in his abdomen appears & through muscle contractions he pushes out the juveniles. This, however, is not the only specialized thing about them. They have specialized structures within their skin cells that are called chromatophores. This allows them to change colour in order to mimic their surroundings. They are able to do this seemingly at will. Sea horses lack teeth, instead having a long snout that they use to vacuum prey into their throats. This is why they can only consume very small edibles. They also lack a stomach & have an incredibly unique digestive tract which is only found in sea horses. The way that they digest is that their snout sucks the food in & it disintegrates as it goes through the snout. Due to this, they have to eat continuously to live or they will die of starvation. A sea horse’s anal fin is also on the front of the sea horse, it is near the torso of the sea horse. The male’s pouch so to speak, is just below the anal fin. The gills of the sea horse are located on the side of their head & are shaped like a circle. It is quite noticeable. Their tail is square in bone structure. Their skeleton is a bone structure of interlocking bones. If you look at a Slender Sea Horse’s entire body you will notice that all of it is built in a very similar way besides the skull.
The image above depicts a sea horse skeleton replica. Their bones make them not very appealing to crabs as they cannot be gripped onto by crabs’ claws. Their anatomy makes it incredibly hard for them to swim at a fast pace. Their fins do not help with speed at all, and are mostly used by the sea horse to steer. After a long journey, they can die quickly of exhaustion. They also swim upright, unlike any other fish in the ocean. Occasionally, they will use their tail to wrap around seaweed or other types of flora. They have been captured by humans & are friendly towards humans. Sea horses all evolved from pipefish-like species. This can be seen due in that there is a present genome in them that is found in almost every pipefish species. Their phylum is Chordata meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics. All species under the phylum of Chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either in adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal Slits, & a post-anal tail. Their class is Actinopterygii, which means that they are ray-finned fish. This also means that their actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements. Their order is Syngnathiformes. This is an order of ray-skinned fishes that includes trumpetfish & sea horses. A characteristic of being categorized under this order is that their bodies are narrow & surrounded by a series of bony rings. Another characteristic is their long tubular mouths. Their family is Syngathidae. This is a family of sea horses & pipefish. A characteristic of them is their elongated snout. Another characteristic is that they lack pelvic fins. Their genus is Hippocampus. A feature that is found in all of them is their bone structure leaves them in an upright position. Hippocampus is one of the genuses that make up the family of Syngathidae.
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