Sygnathidae-+Witmer

Big- Belly Seahorse Movement- Seahorses swim with a dorsal fin on there backs that can beat 35 times a second. They steer with a pectoral fin on there head. They are generally bad swimmers and can easily die of exhaustion.

Feeding- Big belly seahorses eat small crustaceans for example plankton, or brine shrimp. They use there snout to suck up food. They can suck up to 3000 brine shrimp a day.

Growth and Development- The Big Belly Seahorse is the biggest seahorse and can be anywhere from 18- 35cm.

Reproduction- Male seahorses have a pouch that female seahorses deposit there eggs into. He carries them in his pouch until they hatch, which releases mini seahorses.

Classification- The Big- Belly seahorse is in the kingdom- Animalia, phylum- Chordata, class- Osteichthyes, family- Syngathidae, genus- Hippocampus, species- Abdominalis

Differences between Males and females- One difference between male and female Big- Seahorses is males have a pouch to carry fertilized eggs and females do not.

Sygnathidae Family General characteristics- Animals in the sygnathidae family generally live in warm waters and in costal reefs. All sygnathidae are carnivorous and eat small crustaceans. They can be anywhere from 8mm to 650mm.

Sygnathidae Examples- Some examples of sygnathidae are seadragons, pipefish, pipehorses, and seahorses. Sources- www.allthesea.com/Seahorses.html www.fishbase.org  www.animals.nationalgeographic.com