Dad has the babies
The female puts her eggs in a pouch on the male's front. He carries them until hundreds of tiny seahorses pop out.
Coral reef
Common seahorse
Hippocampus kuda
A small, upright fish with a head like a horse, armour of bony rings and a tail that curls round things.
- Size
- About 15 to 20cm tall
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Sea grass, mangroves and reefs of the Indian and Pacific oceans
Drifts after you, fin fluttering. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Seahorse
Good to know
Six things about the seahorse
The slowest fish
Seahorses are among the slowest swimmers of all fish. They move with a small fin that beats many times a second.
A tail that holds on
The tail grips sea grass or coral, so the seahorse is not swept away.
Eyes that move apart
Each eye moves on its own, so it can look forwards and backwards at the same time.
No stomach
It has no teeth and no stomach, so it must eat almost all day, sucking up tiny shrimps through its snout.
A daily dance
A pair greets each other every morning with a dance, changing colour as they turn.
The real thing
Photos of the seahorse
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Seahorses are very hard to spot: look for a tail wrapped round a stem of sea grass. Britain has two kinds of its own, on the south coast.
How to help
Seahorses are dried and sold as souvenirs and medicine. Never buy them, and anchor boats away from sea grass, where they live.
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