19 FEBRUARY, 2020 ... SEA DRAGONS AND SEA HORSES

A SEA DRAGON-HORSE

As a kid, I was always amused and interested in SeaHorses, they come in over 50 varieties, and are generally unknown to most people on the planet, so, let me enlighten you... it's fun !
                                                        
The scientific name for Seahorses is "Hippocampus" which when translated means "horse caterpillar", they actually are fish, and they have gills and a swim bladder, but none of the usual fins like other fish, they have external skeletons made of boney armor sections, but, they have no scales. They are saltwater, shallow tropical water creatures                                      

They have a long elephant-like trunk-snout that acts like a vacuum cleaner, it is expandable for large items, but Seahorses have no teeth and cannot chew, so they have to chemically digest what they find for food.  Their eyes work independently  not as a pair, and their tails can wrap and hold onto things in high current waters.

Seahorses mate for life, and during their romancing change and alternate colors, they can change colors to hide or blend in at will, but the male (not the female), carries the eggs in a pouch until they are live-born, it takes about four weeks until the small seahorses and leave the pouch. 

They are horrible swimmers and end up as being the slowest of all fish, they "flutter" rather than swim.

Although Seahorses are an endangered species, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Norway fully ignore the preservation taking over 200 million seahorses annually, which are caught and used for Chinese medicine, and the souvenir business (like dried starfish and shells), they are thrown ashore into the hot sun to die and dry.

Sea Dragons come in different varieties too,  The Leafy Sea Dragon is very special,                           

This species of seahorse can be about 8 inches long so it is among the largest that you will find