Tennessee Sealife: Part 2

December 7, 2009 This is a cuttlefish. I think he looks like a wee hippopatamus with no legs. Technically, they're mollusks, not fish. They can rapidly change colour to camouflage or communicate with other cuttlefish. Tell me that's not cute.

Seahorses are poor swimmers, but they are majestic creatures.

It does look like he's missing a little fish jockey...

Did you know it's the male seahorse that incubates the eggs in his pouch?

"The eggs then hatch in the pouch where the salinity of the water is regulated; this prepares the newborns for life in the sea. Throughout the male’s incubation, his mate visits him daily for 'morning greetings'. The female seahorse swims over for about 6 minutes of interaction reminiscent of courtship. They change color, wheel around sea grass fronds, and finally promenade, holding each other’s tails. :D Then, the female swims away until the next morning, and the male goes back to vacuuming up food through his snout." Wikipedia. But the smiley face is mine.

The yellow guy below is a seahorse, but what's more interesting are the gold and black fish to his left. They drift and swim vertical, in a pack--a strange sight.

Most seahorses can camouflage with colour, but some are built for pure deception like the one below that was difficult to discern in seaweed, and its green partner more so.

We saw seahorses of all colours and some as wee as a thumbnail and some a foot long. The seahorse exhibit was my favourite of them all.

-P