### animal | vertebrate | mammal | aquatic mammal:

Seahorse
* Many seahorses are monogamous, at least during a single breeding season.
* Most seahorses can breed up to two times a month
  - use camouflage and their body armour as their main means of defence
* Some seahorses are seasonal.
* are a type of bony fish.
* are also big money
  - mixed with medicinal herbs for body tonic and aphrodisiacs
  - oviviparous meaning they incubate their eggs inside their bodies
  - among the most beautiful and enchanting of marine fish
  - capable of rapid color transformations to blend with their surroundings
  - experts at camouflage
  - extremely slow swimmers
  - found in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world
  - hatched from eggs lain by the female seahorse
  - important in education and research
* are located in oceans
* are monogamous and during the mating period they engage in a lengthy courtship
  - for the gestation period
  - monogamously pair-bonded
* are notoriously difficult to keep healthy in aquaria
  - keep, and very few survive for long in captivity
  - pipefishs
  - poor swimmers
  - predators on small crustaceans
  - salt water fish and like tall tanks
  - sexually dimorphic
* are small fish with a life span of one to five years
  - heads that look like horse heads
  - susceptible to over-fishing and extinction due to their biology and behavior
* are the only animals in which the male actually becomes pregnant
  - fish that experience true male pregnancy
  - very suitable for aquaculture, showing rapid growth rate under farmed conditions
* are vulnerable to extinction
  - over-harvesting for curios and aquarium specimens
  - well camouflaged among the eelgrasses and seaweeds in which they make their homes
* can be expensive
  - grayish and red
  - hard to find
* can change color and grow skin filaments to blend with their surroundings
  - colour very quickly and match any surroundings in which it finds itself
  - grow spiky appendages to their body
  - live for six years
* come in several species and sizes.
* eat anything small enough to fit in their snouts - mostly larvae of other animals
  - live fresh food
  - tiny shrimp and other small crustaceans
* exhibit conventional sex roles in mating competition, despite male pregnancy.
* feed on plankton , small fish and small crustaceans such as shrimp and copepods
  - small crustaceans floating in the water or crawling on the bottom
* get their prey by a tongue that shoots out of their snout.
* have a strong prehensile tail
  - vertical mating dance that can last for hours
  - elongate bodies encased in bony rings
  - no caudal fin
  - quite a unique reproduction cycle
* hide in the seaweed, their black and bronze hads dusted with gold flecks
  - and bronze heads dusted with gold flecks
* inhabit coral reefs and sea grass beds
  - shallow coastal waters, especially seagrass beds, coral reefs and mangrove swamps
* lack teeth and a stomach.
* live around the world.
* obviously recognise each other as individuals because they ignore non partners.
* participate in courtship, mating and caring for their young.
* rely on camouflage to avoid detection
  - stealth to ambush small prey such as copepods
* reproduce sexually, because they combine gametes from two parents.
* stay with one mate for life.
* swim in and out coral reefs
  - upright with their tails down and their heads up
* use their prehensile tail to hang out on objects such as seaweed and branching corals.
+ Seahorse, Reproduction, Birth: Syngnathiformes

### animal | vertebrate | mammal | aquatic mammal | seahorse:

Female seahorse
* produce eggs for reproduction that are then fertilized by the male.
* transfer eggs to the male s pouch where the eggs are fertilised.

Male seahorse
* give birth.
* invest substantial amounts of energy into the developing offspring.
* protect and nourish their developing offspring inside their bodies.