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[Gaborn]

Let's face it, we can never see too many stories about male animals that gestate their young and give birth. And when the babies are as insanely supercute as this, so much the better. But - there's always a but - seahorses in the wild aren't doing so well.

A record-breaking 918 baby short-snouted seahorses were born at London Zoo's aquarium on Monday and caught on camera.

Famed for their unusual gestation process - whereby the male is equipped with a 'brood pouch' and goes through pregnancy and birth - seahorses are notoriously hard to breed:

"Last year we managed to breed a batch of fry, but sadly none of them made it through to adulthood. This year marks the very first time we've managed to rear short-snouted seahorses to a stage where they're eating live food," said Sam Guillaume who led the breeding team.

Such large numbers of offspring are a survival adaptation in the wild, according to Brian Zimmerman, the aquarium's Assistant Curator. In the wild, only one or two would make it to adulthood, he says, and they are especially susceptible to fishing practices and pollution.

A clear example is in the Gulf of Mexico, where the dwarf seahorse - the smallest seahorse in the world - is facing extinction following the BP oil spill. Amanda Vincent, director of the Project Seahorse conservation group told CBC News this week that the animals were in the height of their breeding season when the rig blew up in April.

"We have very high levels of concern for this particular species because they have a narrower range," Heather Masonjones, a seahorse biologist at the University of Tampa, Florida, told The Guardian newspaper. They are poor swimmers and produce relatively few offspring, so would find it harder to recover from this event, she said. Better news for British seahorses, however. Off the Dorset coast, baby sea horses were recently seen for the first time in UK waters. According to Wired the Seahorse Trust have been scouring the coastline for years but have only ever found adults and juveniles - never a baby. But a Seahorse Trust spokesperson told the BBC that the news isn't as good as it first sounds:

Story Here

Video is at the link

 

[Holepunch]

I've always wondered, what makes them the think the one that gives birth is the male?

 

[Scarecrow]

I've always wondered, what makes them the think the one that gives birth is the male?

from what I understand, it's like the actions of the male and female are reversed. The male still contributes seed/female the eggs. It's that the female gives the eggs to the male, who fertilizes them inside himself.

What I'm wondering is how they were able to count all those little guys. One, two... dammit.

 

[SapientWolf]

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/07/14/thing-a-week-41-seahorse/

 

[Owensboro]

I've always wondered, what makes them the think the one that gives birth is the male?

It's all in the video if you watch it!

 

[G-Fex]

Reminds me of this asian fish store that had Sea Horses a lotta years ago, first time I've ever seen sea horses in real life. As well as huge crabs and Eels.

 

[dejay]

Must have been hard to count.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

I've always wondered, what makes them the think the one that gives birth is the male?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujRwl6dL9go

 

[Submarino Conversível]

They're so magical

 

[iamaustrian]

kill them with fire or nuke from orbit

flesheating creatures from the depths of hell, really

 

[plasmasd]

kill them with fire or nuke from orbit

flesheating creatures from the depths of hell, really

Agreed

 

[DrM]

Cthulhu minions

 

[Gaborn]

Must have been hard to count.

Yeah, you'd think they would just leave it around 900.

 

[which1spink]

kill them with fire or nuke from orbit

flesheating creatures from the depths of hell, really

Doesn't seem like you're a huge fan of the Haus des Meeres/Nazi Flakturm in Vienna, aren't you?

 

[Lamel]

Seahorses look weird as hell man, what the fuck are they?!

 

[Deleted member 1235]

that tank looked like just a water tank that a bunch of dudes jizzed in

 

[Tony Rocky Horror]

Yeah, you'd think they would just leave it around 900.

I bet that's exactly what they did, but added some odd number to not make it notice-able.

 

[∀ Narayan]

What I'm wondering is how they were able to count all those little guys. One, two... dammit.

Radar or some other type of imaging.

Seahorses look weird as hell man, what the fuck are they?!

Seahorses.

 

[Xeke]

Fucking seahorses

 

[iamaustrian]

Doesn't seem like you're a huge fan of the Haus des Meeres/Nazi Flakturm in Vienna, aren't you?

but I am.

 

[WillyFive]

Seahorses look weird as hell man, what the fuck are they?!

Fish that look like horses. I always liked them, but they are really tiny.

 

[daemonic]

Pretty awesome. I love reading stories like this.

 

[FuturusX]

Yeah, you'd think they would just leave it around 900.

Couldn't just make it up.

Had to be accurate, they're scientists not theologists.....zing! I kid the theologists.

 

[Apath]

I really wanted a Sea Horse, Mandarin, Pipefish Coral Reef tank back in the day, but Sea Horses (and the other fish I wanted to keep them with) are a major pain in the ass. They need hand feeding like... three times a day and sometimes you have to ween your way in to getting them to eat. Beautiful animals though, and incredibly docile.

 

[Lamel]

Seahorses.

Derp...I meant do they qualify as fish, worms, verts or inverts? Wiki to the rescue...


Edit: they're a type of pipefish.