Longsnout Seahorse | Oceana
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Marine Life Encyclopedia

Ocean Fishes

Longsnout Seahorse

Hippocampus reidi

Distribution

ECOSYSTEM/HABITAT

Coral and rocky reefs and adjacent seagrass beds and manmade structures

FEEDING HABITS

Visual planktivore (predator)

TAXONOMY

Order Syngnathiformes (pipefishes and relatives), Family Syngnathidae (pipefishes and seahorses)

Longsnout seahorses are very poor swimmers and rely on camouflage and bony plates that cover most of their bodies to avoid predation. Like other seahorses, the longsnout seahorse’s tail is highly maneuverable, and it uses this tail to attach itself to seagrasses, mangrove roots, sponges, soft corals, or other places where it hides. Longsnout seahorses eat tiny plankton but are small enough and have sufficient vision to see and attack individual prey (unlike large filter feeders). Their heads are relatively large compared to their very small mouths, so they are able to concentrate enough pressure at their mouths to easily suck in their prey.

Like all seahorses, longsnout seahorses have an interesting reproductive strategy. Females lay their eggs into specialized pouches on the males’ abdomens, and the males incubate them until they hatch. Furthermore, scientists believe that some seahorses have monogamous relationships and form pairs that stay together for several mating seasons in a row.

Scientists do not currently have sufficient data to determine population trends for the longsnout seahorse, but most species of seahorses are vulnerable to overfishing. They are easy to capture and are dried out to be sold to tourists or shipped to some Asian countries where they are used in traditional medicine. They are also popular aquarium species. It is important for scientists to continue to study the longsnout seahorse in order to determine whether or not its populations are stable and what conservations measures might need to be initiated.

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