Of the many curious creatures that live underwater, seahorses are an easy favorite. They look like, well, sea horses, move in an absurd manner and defy convention by having their males give birth. All in all, they fit right in on Coney Island, where the New York Aquarium is happy to announce that its pot-bellied seahorse breeding program is getting off to a great start.
Pot-bellied seahorses, native to the waters around Australia, are some of the biggest of their kind—they can reach 13.5". They also are quite popular for pets and local medicines and are constantly being fished. So they are protected under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Because of that protection, the Aquarium has started breeding herds of the buggers, with the a new batch of babies—or fry—recently returned to the main tank with the big horses.
Fun fact? Male seahorses actually carry the babies in this species. Instead of fertilizing eggs in a female, the females drop about 1,500 eggs into the male's brood pouch where they are then fertilized. Because fry are so small and need to eat such a tiny diet (their diet consists mainly of freshly hatched brine shrimp) they are initially removed from their parents before being returned when they are big enough to eat larger food.
You can check out the new pot-bellied seahorses (along with northern and southern seahorses) at the indoor/outdoor Sea Cliffs exhibit at the aquarium (maybe get the Coney season started a little early?). And if you can't wait? Here's a video of some seahorses from the exhibit taken a few years ago:
