Welcome to You Ask Andy

Kelly Greer, age 11, of Lancaster, Pa.,for his question:

How can the male seahorse have babies?

Throughout the animal kingdom, it is customary for the females to lay the eggs or give birth to live babies. It seems only fair that once in  while this all important family duty should be taken over by the males. For a long time, everybody thought that this actually happens in the seahorse family. We now know the bewildering truth that Papa Seahorse does and doesn't give birth to the babies.           

The remarkable seahorse looks like somebody carved him of wood to serve as the knight in a chess set. He proceeds with slow, stately elegance through the water in an upright position, using his long prehensile tail to grasp the trailing waterweeds. Regardless of these oddities, he is a genuine fish, with gills and fast moving minifins.

In the fish world, life usually starts with floating eggs, most of which are consumed by the hungry sea. But baby seahorses are born alive, quite peppy and ready to go. People naturally thought that the tiny babes struggled forth from a bulging pouch on the female's stomach. About 160 years ago, careful observers took a closer look into the seahorse family life. Lo and behold, they reported that the male seahorse gives birth to the babies  but for the next 40 years or so nobody else believed it.

The story is pretty hard to believe. The babies, naturally, must have two parents to get started. The female starts the cycle by producing a batch of eggs inside her small body. She also grows a sort of finger called an ovipositor. Then she goes courting for a suitable mate. She makes her selection and gets ready to lay her eggs.

On his stomach, the male seahorse has a special pocket called the broodpouch, with a small opening. The female uses her ovipositor to poke the eggs through the hole into the broodpouch. She pokes 100 to 200 eggs, two or three at a time, safely into Papa's pocket. Then she swims off on her carefree way and most likely forgets the whole thing.

The broodpouch opening seals shut, and for the next six weeks or so the male seahorse tends the precious eggs. As the embryos develop, they get frisky and kick around inside Papa's pocket. At last they are mature enough to be born  but this remarkable baby birth is far from easy.

The weary father must labor to deliver his offspring. He finds a sheltered spot among the waterweeds and rubs his bulging pouch against a rock. This helps to open the small exit. He shoves, pushes and twists to help the youngsters emerge, two by two and three by three.    

Soon there is a cloud of frisky babes around the weary father, all preparing to swim off to find food and shelter among the seaweeds. He has earned a rest. But often in just a day or so he welcomes another batch of eggs into his broodpouch, and the bulging family business starts all over again.

 

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