Seahorse Park - Facts & Figures

General

12 Species of the genus Hippocampus
& Geographical distribution*

• H. ingens
  • West coast of (sub)tropical North-, Central- and South America
• H. hippocampus
  • Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Sea from Morrocco through South-east France
• H. reidi
  • South America's West coast through Carribean, Mexico, Florida
• H. erectus
  • East coast of North, Central and South America from Argentina through Canada
• H. zosterae
  • Gulf of Mexico and Carribean
• H. comes
  • Far East coast from Taiwan through Indonesia
• H. histrix
  • Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Far East through Japan, Australia
• H. abdominalis
  • New Zealand, South and East Australia
• H. bargibanti
  • New Caledonia
• H. breviceps
  • South- and East Australia
• H. whitei
  • East Australia
• H. fuscus
  • Tropical coasts of Indian Ocean

Size/Food/Breeding

• Seahorse species (35) vary in size from 2.5 to 35 cm (sorry, inches are out).
• The main food for the seahorse is shrimp and other Crustaceans. In aquaria, it is difficult to provide them with the fresh food and/or environmental circumstances they seem to need.
• Keeping a seahorse alive for more than one year seems to be very improbable.
  We can not advise on breeding Seahorses. It is possible to buy live Seahorses, but successful breeding can not be predicted. They "contract manyfold bacterial, fungial, and parasitic ailments - and fish veterinary science is in its infancy"*.

Commercial/Medical/Biological Trivia

• Roughly 20 million live and dead seahorses were traded legally internationally in 1993*.
• Primarily the seahorses are used for medicines and aphrodisiacs in Asia. However, they are also used for aquariums, curios and food all around the world.
• The Chinese believe that seahorses cure everything from asthma to impotence.
• Their ability to change color is even stronger than the well known Chameleon. It is observed that this happens for reasons of safety (camouflage) as well as reacting to other seahorses, expressing emotions.
• The H. hippocampus develops skin filaments to camouflage, and looks like sea weed. H. bargibanti does this to look like coral.
• An organisation actively studying the seahorses is the Darwin Survival of Species program on the Biodiversity Convention.
• The female seahorse can lay about 200 eggs and the father caries the eggs until they hatch.

Literature/Media

• *Vincent, Amanda: ARTICLE-"The Improbable Seahorse"-National Geographic 186/4 October 1994 pp126-140.
• Vincent, Amanda: VIDEO-"The secret life of Seahorses"-BBC/QED Juli 11, 1996.
• Disney Company, The Walt: ANIMATION VIDEO-"The little Mermaid/The wild Seahorse" Dutch VHS cassette: 8711875166518, 1992.
  
  
• Quotes from Eindhovens Dagblad, The Netherlands [in Dutch only]: