Sea Horses of the Bahamas

When it comes to scuba diving Bahamas is second to none in the world. The beautiful beaches and experienced guides, along with ample marine wildlife and fascinating underwater habitats, guarantee that even the most jaded visitor will be enchanted by what they find. There are many animals, both large and small, who call the warm waters off the Bahamas home. One of these animals is the Sea Horse, from the Hippocampus family of fish.

Sea Horse Appearance

Sea horses have some of the most unusual and charming appearances of any fish. They range greatly in size, from just under an inch to just over a foot long. Unlike many other fish, they hold themselves up vertically and swim using their dorsal fins. As a whole, sea horses do not move very quickly.

Their name comes from the fact that their arched neck and long snout gives them the appearance of the front half of a horse. Their tails, which are flexible, are often seen curled inwards in a spiral directly underneath their body. They also use their tails to hold onto perches. Though related to pipefish, their bodies look very different.

Male sea horses have an egg-holding pouch in the front of their bodies. This pouch can hold thousands of eggs, which are deposited by a willing female sea horse. When they are attempting to mate, a process which can take days, they are able to change color. They can also change color in their more day to day lives when attempting to camouflage themselves. Though it is unusual in the animal world for fathers to "give birth" or gestate, male sea horses assume this task in lieu of the females.

Sea Horse Eating Habits

Sea horses use their long snouts to suck up food. They do not have teeth. They primarily eat small crustacean animals such as shrimp or krill. Due to their slow speed they aren't particularly good hunters, and so they often rely on ambush or on easy to capture prey. They can also stick their snouts into small nooks in reefs or other fixed locations, sucking up any food they encounter within. Adult sea horses may spend a good part of the day eating scores of meals, but their appetite is dwarfed by that of a baby sea horse, who can eat thousands of individual shrimp, albeit tiny ones, every single day. Due to not having a stomach, food passes quickly through a sea horse and they must eat frequently to keep from starving.

Sea Horse Habitats

Perhaps due to their awkward swimming style, sea horses usually stay within a small area. Female sea horses confine themselves to less than five square feet of space, which seems astoundingly limited until compared to the range of a male sea horse, which is only about a third as much.

Despite the small territory of individual sea horses, as a species they can be found all around the globe. In the Americas they are primarily located in the warm sub-tropical waters north of Brazil and south of the state of Georgia. However they can also be found along much of the African coastline, that of southern Europe, Australia, and generally anywhere in the world near the equator, where the water is warm enough to support them. They prefer shallow, grassy seabeds or coral reefs, both areas where they can attach to a perch and easily find food.