When I saw one of the excursions possible from the ship was a visit to a seahorse farm I cast my vote immediately. I told Mr. Munro we should visit and he agreed since we both love nature, animals and the like, and it was something we can’t do here in New Zealand. I fell in love with seahorses during my visit to Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater world in Auckland. Our claim to fame – I believe Kelly Tarlton’s pioneered the giant perspex tubes that you see in aquariums World wide.
1. Seahorses are generally monogamous and they can’t live alone. They must have a mate.
2. The seahorse is the only animal in the entire animal kingdom in which the MALE has a true pregnancy.
3. The MALE stays pregnant most of its life.
4. Seahorses inhabit the coral reefs and sea grass beds in all the oceans of the world.
5. They’re an endangered species.
6. Over 30 million seahorses are taken from the wild every year for use in Chinese medicine.
7. Over 1 million seahorses are taken from the wild for pets. Most die.
8. They will eat only live foods such as brine shrimp and are prone to stress in an aquarium, which lowers the efficiency of their immune systems and makes them susceptible to disease.
9. A seahorse has highly mobile eyes to watch for predators and prey without moving its body. It has a long snout with which it sucks up its prey. Its fins are small because it must move through thick water vegetation. The seahorse has a long, prehensile tail which it will curl around any support such as seaweed to prevent being swept away by currents.
10. Ocean Rider in Kona, Hawaii started up to breed seahorses so they weren’t taken from the wild for the pet fish trade.
11. As mentioned in No. 8 above seahorses eat live food in the wild. Ocean Rider’s first challenge was to get their seahorses to eat dead food. One brave little seahorse – I think his name was Jack but I can’t remember for sure – tried one and all the others copied him. They moved Jack from tank to tank to train all the other seahorses.
12. Check out Ocean Rider for details on buying and caring for seahorses and register for their bulletin board to get into contact with other owners.
13. A pair of Mustang Seahorses of medium size costs around US$300 for a pair. Mustang seahorses are good for first time seahorse owners. They are tropical, colorful, bold, gregarious, social, hearty and healthy! They all feed EZY on frozen mysis enhanced with Vibrance® right from your hand!!
Ocean Rider has been breeding the Mustang since 1998. They first offered Certifiticates of Authenticity and High Health for the Mustang in 1999. All Mustangs are now shipped with these Certificates.
And finally, here are a few photos from our visit. It was a bit hard to photograph the little blighters but we did our best! These are the tanks and that’s me with my floppy hat.
And these are my fingers holding a seahorse. They’re just so danged cute. Ah, that would be the seahorses, not my fingers 
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September 20th, 2007 at 4:26 am · Link
Very cool pictures. They are amazing creatures. Great hat too. :-)
September 20th, 2007 at 4:35 am · Link
That’s neat. They’re bigger than I thought.
September 20th, 2007 at 4:45 am · Link
Oh, those are beautiful. I wonder why they didn’t just feed them live food? Do you know? Just gotta love a Jack, though, you know? You might have to write a story about him.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:05 am · Link
Happy T13!
September 20th, 2007 at 5:26 am · Link
Those pics are fabulous! I adore seahorses. I even want to have a tattoo of one someday. Thanks for all these wonderful facts, Shelley. :)
September 20th, 2007 at 5:40 am · Link
Very cool stuff!!
September 20th, 2007 at 5:54 am · Link
FANTASTIC, FANTASTIC TT, Shelley!! I adore seahorses and your pictures and info are amazing. Thanks for sharing!
September 20th, 2007 at 6:08 am · Link
That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing.
September 20th, 2007 at 6:16 am · Link
I love seahorses, they’re so cool looking.
And I laughed at the “male seahorses stay pregnant for most of their life” part. Eeek!
September 20th, 2007 at 6:49 am · Link
What a great post! I love seahorses (and their relatives, the sea dragons). Might have to borrow this idea for a future list!
September 20th, 2007 at 7:06 am · Link
Oh nice list….Lot’s of interesting things I never knew….Thanx
http://www.savannahchase.com/blog
September 20th, 2007 at 7:12 am · Link
Awesome pictures, Shelley! I enjoyed them.
September 20th, 2007 at 7:48 am · Link
Awesome pictures!! And you are my learned something new for the day! Thanks!
September 20th, 2007 at 7:56 am · Link
They’re adorable and they are bigger than I thought too.
September 20th, 2007 at 8:44 am · Link
Very cool list! I think sea horses are too cute!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is at http://paigetylertheauthor.blogspot.com/
September 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am · Link
Very cool, but PREGNANT HIS WHOLE LIFE
My goodness I couldn’t even begin to imagine. I was so crusty at 9mos. LOL.
Great TT and great pictures, that is so cool.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:39 am · Link
Amazing TT! Thanks so much for sharing, Shelley!
September 20th, 2007 at 10:12 am · Link
We visited a seahorse hatchery at the Scripps aquarium in California–what a cool place, and we saw the tiniest babies you can imagine!
Very cool pics, btw!
Amelia
September 20th, 2007 at 10:16 am · Link
I love seahorses! The Seattle Aquarium has a really wonderful seahorse exhibit and my kids love it too.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:42 am · Link
What a neat post! I love seahorses and knew some of the facts.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:43 am · Link
What a cool post, Shelley, and great pictures as well. The seahorses are so cute!
September 20th, 2007 at 11:16 am · Link
Sea horses…I got to feeling guilty because I bought my daughter a packet of…then I remembered they were sea monkeys. Ugh. Can you tell I’m totally not with the marine world?
The trip sounds great.
September 20th, 2007 at 11:49 am · Link
Don’t sell yourself short: your fingers are adorable!
I love seahorses, never could figure out how Aquaman could ride one, though…
September 20th, 2007 at 2:12 pm · Link
Wow! I was hoping you’d have pictures. I think I like seahorses!
Of course, I’d adore any species in which the male is pregnant most of his life…
September 20th, 2007 at 5:25 pm · Link
I’ve always loved seahorses. You have some amazing pictures, Shelley.
September 20th, 2007 at 6:14 pm · Link
Great list and cool pictures. Thanks for sharing them.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:58 pm · Link
Seahorses are sooo cute. But Jack the seahorse? My current hero is called Jack. I’m not sure the visual I’m getting now is a good thing!!
September 20th, 2007 at 10:40 pm · Link
I’m glad you all enjoyed my seahorse post. I think they’re so cute and love that the male’s have the babies. Now, that’s good planning.
Christina – I have a Jack hero as well. He’s a taniwha shifter so the water part is right.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:58 am · Link
Thanks for sharing you experience, I didn’t know that seahorses are endangered.You taught me something new today.
Hugs,Danette
September 21st, 2007 at 2:07 am · Link
Hi Danette – great to see you here. I envy you your beautiful home
You’ll have to make time to get to the big island to check them out yourself.