Charles Grimsley, age 8, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for his question:
How Iong does it take Papa Seahorse to have the babies?
Baby seahorses are born live and very frisky. For a long time, everybody thought they struggled forth from their mother's stomach. Then about 160 years ago, experts watched the seahorse family life more carefully. They reported that Papa gives birth to the babies, but for 40 years, nobody believed it.
The little seahorse is a wonder. He looks like no other fish in the sea, and you can hardly believe he is real. His long nose, his gracefully arched neck. and chest look for all the world like a miniature horse. But he has no horse like legs and hoofs, and the rest of his body ends in a most amazing tail. This tapering; tail is a sort of bendable finger. He coils it around the seaweeds and holds tight, lest the turbulent waves sweep him away.
True, when you see him it's hard to believe he's real. But the family life of the seahorse is even harder to believe. The babies, of course, must have two parents to get started. And Momma Seahorse starts things by growing a batch of eggs inside her small body. She also grows a sort of finger called an ovipositor. Then the little lady goes courting a husband. She chooses a suitable mate and then gets ready to lay her eggs.
This is when she needs her finger like ovipositor, using it to poke the eggs through a small opening in Papa Seahorse's stomach. The little hole opens into a special pocket called a broodpouch. Momma Seahorse lays 100 to 200 eggs. She tucks them, two or three at a time, safely into the broodpouch. Then she swims away, most likely forgetting all about them.
In the meantime Papa Seahorse tends the precious eggs. The little hole seals itself shut. Soon the tiny embryos get frisky. They kick around inside for about six and a half weeks. Then they are ready to be born. But there is still more. The patient Papa must help them to struggle put of his pouch. He finds a sheltered spot among the seaweeds and rubs his stomach against a rock. This helps to open the little hole. Then out come the frisky youngsters two by two and three by three. They measure about a quarter of an inch long. Fhen the job is done, there are 100 to 200 baby seahorses in the water, all swimming off to find food and shelter among the seaweeds. And at last, the Papa Seahorse can rest from his unusual duties.
The patient Papa Seahorse is about four inches long and lives in warm parts of the Atlantic Ocean. He has about 50 seahorse cousins who live near other warm shores. The biggest one is a foot long. He lives in the Pacific from California south to Peru. The dwarf seahorse who lives off Florida measures only two inches long.