Lined seahorse Facts for Kids

A seahorse is a small fish with a head like a horse. It swims standing up. The dad has a pouch on his belly where the eggs grow.

A seahorse grips seagrass with its curly tail so the current can't sweep it away. It has no teeth and sucks up tiny shrimp whole through its long snout, like a straw. Each of its eyes can look in a different direction at the same time.

Seahorses are bony fish, though they look like no other: they have no scales, and their skin is stretched over rings of bony plates. They swim upright using a tiny fin on the back that flutters very fast, so they are slow and rely on hiding, sometimes changing color to match the seagrass. The mother puts her eggs into the father's belly pouch, and he carries them until the tiny seahorses are ready, then pushes them out. Lined seahorses are listed as vulnerable, mainly because seagrass beds are being lost and many are caught for pets and dried medicine, so people protect their seagrass homes.