Mary Jane Rogers age 13, Collinsville, c.a.,
How big is a seahorse?
Don't expect this charming fellow to be as big as the horse in the pasture. The smallest of the seahorse cousins could fit into the ear of a newborn pony. No seahorse has hooves, in fact he has feet and no legs. Even Andy, who is pixie‑sized could never put a bit between the seahorse’s teeth, for he has no teeth. Yet one glimpse of him and you will agree that he is properly called a seahorse.
The front half of him looks like a small paper cutout of a prancing steed: The rest of him ends in a graceful tail. Altogether, you might suspect he is a knight escaped from a set of artistically carved chess pieces.
There are some 17 seahorse cousins of various sizes. They belong to the Hemibranchi, or half‑gilled family of sea dwellers. Their gills are smaller than those of most fish, The graceful bodies are completely encased in suits of jointed armor. All have long, horsey snouts ending in little round toothless mouths. They enjoy life in warmish seawater and feed on small crustacians, which they swallow whole.
The smallest of the cousins dwells off the coast of Florida. He measures about two inches from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. The giant of the family enjoys the coastal Pacific from southern California to Peru. He may measure more than a foot long.
The glamor seahorse hovers off the shores of Australia. This graceful beauty grows trails of leafy streamers. He is rare and hard to find, perhaps because he is often mistaken for a bunch of seaweed. The Atlantic seahorse is not so hard to find. Full grown, this fellow may measure four inches, though giants of seven inches have been found.
Sad to say, we do not often get a chance to see the seahorse in action. He is mighty choosey about his watery home. He insists on fresh, pure ,sawater cr.anged every few hours. But it is well worth a trip to a specialaquarium to study him in his watery home.
Half of any seahorse is tail In spite of its armor plating, it is a very supple tail. It is also a prehensile tail. Like the monkey the seahorse can use his tail to grasp and hold onto things. He uses it to hold himself onto seaweed, twigs of coral and jutty stones.
At first you may not spot him in the murky green water. While resting he likes to hide in the shadows. See, there is his elegant head among the waterweeds. His body is held erect, his head carried like a proud steed. Here he comes gliding into the open water, body still erect, head held in true horsey fashion, tail coiled gracefully below him.
He glides along with slow dignity as though he were leading a regal procession. How can he swim without moving a muscle? He is fanning small gauzy fins through the water. They are transparent and moving 35 times a second ‑ too fast, too small and too gauzy for you to spot them.