Seahorse: The little fish whose father carries the babies

The seahorse has "horse" in its name and looks a little like a tiny horse — but it is actually a fish. It always holds itself upright, drifting slowly through the water, and looks wonderfully endearing. It also has a trick unique in the world: the father hatches the babies. Let's meet it.

Its body

The seahorse is a small fish, about 5 to 15 centimetres long. It has a long snout, like a little drinking straw, for sucking up shrimps and other small animals; its body is wrapped in rings of bony plates like a suit of armour; and it has a curled tail that grips seagrass, holding it steady in the current so it can rest without drifting away. It swims in an upright posture, moving slowly forward by fanning its dorsal fin.

Its family

The seahorse's most unusual feature is how it reproduces: the female lays her eggs in a brood pouch on the male's belly, and the male carries and hatches them, finally "giving birth" to the young. In other words, in the seahorse's world it is the father who carries the babies — extremely rare in the animal kingdom.

Where it lives

Seahorses prefer shallow seas with abundant seagrass. The grass gives them somewhere to hide and something to grip while resting. Because they depend on seagrass meadows, seahorses are affected by the loss of those meadows.

A note for grown-ups

You could talk with a child about how fathers can carry babies too — the seahorse is a rare example. Then imagine together how its tail grips the seagrass, like holding a railing. Showing a child that nature contains many family arrangements different from our own makes them more open-minded and more curious.