The slender seahorse or longsnout seahorse (''Hippocampus reidi'') is a species of fish in the family

Syngnathidae The Syngnathidae is a family of fish which includes seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons (''Phycodurus'' and '' Phyllopteryx''). The name is derived from grc, σύν (), meaning "together", and (), meaning "jaw". The fused jaw is one of the t ...

that usually inhabits subtropical regions.

Description

The slender seahorses have a gestation period of around two weeks and typically grow to be approximately 6.8 inches long (17.5 centimeters), while the mean height of juvenile slender seahorses is only around 8.2 millimeters. Males are usually orange, while the females are yellow. However, both males and females may have brown or white spots placed sporadically upon their body. These spots may also change into a pink or white color during the courtship period.

Habitat and distribution

The slender seahorse has been found at depths of . Smaller individuals inhabit shallower waters. The slender seahorse has an affinity for coral reefs and seagrass beds and can be found on gorgonian coral,

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

, and ''

Sargassum ''Sargassum'' is a genus of brown (class Phaeophyceae) macroalgae ( seaweed) in the order Fucales. Numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world, where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral ...

''. It is native to many countries, including the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, United States (Florida and North Carolina), and Venezuela. It inhabits subtropical regions, ranging from 29 degrees north to 25 degrees south and 133 degrees west to 40 degrees east. Many ''H. reidi'' reside near China and more so in Brazil but in both areas they are at a risk of becoming an endangered species. In China these seahorses are used for trade and for traditionally Chinese medication, while in Brazil they are part of a large trading, involving the commercial extraction of 25 million seahorses per year.

Naming

The specific name honors Earl D. Reid of the Division of Fishes at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q132985

slender seahorse The slender seahorse or longsnout seahorse (''Hippocampus reidi'') is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae that usually inhabits subtropical regions. Description The slender seahorses have a gestation period of around two weeks and typ ...

Fauna of the Southeastern United States Fish of the Western Atlantic

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot