Hippocampus reidi
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Hippocampus reidi |
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| Ginsburg , 1933 |
Hippocampus reidi , with the German name Longsnout Seahorse or long-snouted seahorses , is a widespread in tropical regions seahorses - Art . It was first documented by Isaac Ginsburg in 1933.
distribution
Hippocampus reidi lives in the tropical zones of the western Atlantic, from Carolina to the south of Brazil , on Bermuda and the Bahamas, but also in other tropical regions. Depending on the location, differently colored subspecies occur, such as the orange, but somewhat larger subspecies, Hippocampus reidi brasil, on the coast of Brazil .
The animals live mainly in seagrass and seaweed meadows near the mainland. They find a stop between the algae in search of plankton. Corals are avoided because they contain nettle poison . Hippocampus reidi are grateful and interesting residents in the saltwater aquarium and are therefore popular as such. Since seahorses are endangered species, international trade takes place under the control of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species , which allows the export of the animals only with Cites certificates. However, offspring are relatively easy, which is why most of the animals in the German trade come from local rearing.
Way of life and characteristics
Hippocampus reidi are about 14 to 18 cm tall and about two to five years old. Some characteristic features of seahorses can be observed in long-snouted seahorses: a pronounced social life and courtship behavior, the ability to arbitrarily influence the color and a distinctive eating behavior as a food specialist . As ambulance hunters, the animals are constantly on the lookout for animal plankton and eat their prey by creating a strong suction through a very fast suction movement by folding their lower jaw. This means that even prey that does not fit completely through the tubular mouth is sucked in. Shortly after sucking in, fine prey parts often emerge from the gills.
Reproduction
Couples are mostly monogamous and are able to reproduce all year round. During the mating act, they maintain close physical contact by holding onto each other with their tails and snuggling close to their partner from the side. When mating, the female lays the eggs in a brood pouch on the male's belly, from which the 100 to 250 fully developed young animals are released after about two weeks. These are left to fend for themselves and feed on tiny zooplankton such as zooplankton. B. Rotifer .
literature
- Lourie, SA, ACJ Vincent and HJ Hall, 1999. Seahorses: an identification guide to the world's species and their conservation. Project Seahorse, London. 214 p.
Web links
- Hippocampus reidi on Fishbase.org (English)
- Hippocampus reidi inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Project Seahorse, 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2014.