Seahorse Interview By: Natalie

R= Reporter
S= Seahorse
R) Hey, your not a fish or a part of the coral reef! What are you?
S) Actually, I am part of the fish family! I’m a seahorse.
R) I sure do have a lot of questions! I don’t know a thing about you.
S) Ask away, but don’t stay too long I have to find a safe hiding spot!
R) Why? Are you playing hide and seek?
S) No, I gotta hide from predators. Like crabs, rays, sometimes even other fish!
R) Well at least we cleared that up. So, what happened when you were young?
S) The first thing I had to do after I was born was find other baby seahorses.
R) What for? Did your mom tell you you had to find some playmates or something?
S) Actually, I never got to really meet my mother! She, like most other fish, abandoned me, so I had to go and hook up with other baby seahorses. We used our tails to hook onto each other and then we would swim in a group.
R) How long are you? You look really small.
S) Well, I look small because I started out small. I was about the size of a jelly bean when I was born, and now I’m the size of a teacup so about 8in long. Most seahorses are about 0.6in to 15in.
R) Interesting. So what is you lifestyle like now, what do you do?
S) Well now I go to find a partner to be with, so that we can reproduce.
R) But how do you reproduce?
S) I don’t reproduce, unlike other fish the male reproduces. He fertilizes the eggs internally and then they hatch. The baby seahorses then normally stay in the male’s brood pouch. After the seahorses hatch they go and find a home.
R) But where do they go and live?
S) Most seahorses live in shallow waters near seaweed and other plants! Oooooh yummy, shrimp!
R) Did you seriously just suck up that shrimp as it passed by, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?
S) Yes, I did just suck up that shrimp. I love shrimp! I normally eat around 3,000 of them in a day.
R) I sure couldn’t eat that much! I’ve been wondering this whole time, what are those scaly looking things all over you?
S) I guess you could say their scales, but there more like spiny little plates.
R) Do you have that tail for some specific reason?
S) Yes, it’s to help me anchor myself down to coral reefs and grasp things. I really gotta go and hide. It looks like there are a group of fish coming this way!
R) Okay. One more question! How do you swim?
S) I use this little fin on my back to propel myself, and my other fins are for steering. Sometimes my fin on my back flutters up to 35 times per second.
R) Well, you sure are one interesting animal, and now everytime I see a seahorse I’ll know a lot about it.
S) Glad I could help! Gotta go!

Interview