Can hippocampus change color?

Fish, sea dragon, seahorse. Hippocampus is named after its head resembles a horse's head, but interestingly, it is a strange and precious small fish near land and shallow sea. It belongs to the sea horse of the genus Syngnathus, with a flat head and two nostrils on each side. The head and trunk are at right angles, and the chest and abdomen protrude, and it is composed of 10 ~ 12 bone ring. The tail is slender, with four sides and often curly. The whole body is completely wrapped by membranous bone blocks. There is a pouch on the ventral surface of the male hippocampus, in which eggs hatch and can reproduce for 2-3 generations a year. At present, the artificial propagation of hippocampus has been successful. Hippocampus is a valuable Chinese medicine with high economic value, which has the medicinal functions of strengthening the body, tonifying kidney and strengthening yang, relaxing muscles and tendons, relieving inflammation and pain, calming the nerves, relieving cough and asthma. Especially for the treatment of nervous system diseases. Hippocampus is not only mainly used to make various synthetic drugs, but also can be taken directly to strengthen the body and treat diseases.

shape

The shape of hippocampus is very interesting. Although it is only four to thirty centimeters long, its head is bent at right angles to its body, and the fish is thick and flat, completely enclosed in the bone ring. The trunk consists of 10- 12 bony ring; The tail is slender and quadrangular, and the tail is thin and sharp, which can be rolled and held; The head is bent, forming a large obtuse angle or right angle with the trunk, with a prominent crown at the top and a short tip at the crown end; Kiss is tubular; Small mouth, end position; Small branchial foramen; Dorsal fin is located between trunk and tail; Short gluteal fin; Thoracic fin developed; No caudal fin; The male fish has a bag on the ventral side of his tail.

Its mouth is very sharp, tubular and can't be opened. It can only suck small animals in the water for food. Its eyes are also very special; You can rotate up and down, left and right, or back and forth respectively. However, its own body does not need to rotate, so it can see in all directions with smart eyes. Sometimes, one eye looks forward and the other eye looks back, which other animals can't do except dragonflies and chameleons. The hippocampus is the least like a fish, and it combines the characteristics of horses, shrimps and elephants. It has a head like a horse, eyes like a dragonfly, a body like a shrimp, a tail like a nose, a horn like a crown, a bent head at right angles to the body, an armored body, a vertical swimming style, and the only case of male childbirth in the world.

Its fins are not easy to see with the naked eye. But with high-speed photography and careful observation, you can see moving thorns. These spines can move back and forth 70 times in one second. According to the wave from one end of the dorsal fin to the other, the hippocampus can ride this wave freely back and forth or up and down.

The structure and function of hippocampus tail are very different from other fish. At rest, the hippocampus uses the curling ability of its tail to wrap it around the stems and branches of seaweed. Therefore, most seahorses live outside the lush algae in the deep sea. Swimming posture is also very special. Head up, body slightly tilted upright in the water, completely relying on dorsal fin and pectoral fin movement. The fan-shaped dorsal fin plays the role of wave propulsion.

living environment

Hippocampus and Syngnathus belong to Syngnathidae, and the water quality requirements for feeding and survival are not strict. In the domestic aquarium market, black seahorse (Histrix), grey seahorse (Erectus) and spotted seahorse (Dunkerocampus Dactyliophorus) are more common, while the more expensive red seahorse (Coronatus), golden seahorse (Kuda) and Padron () are relatively rare. orange juice

In natural waters, seahorses usually like to live in the slow current of coral reefs. Because they are not good at swimming, they often outline coral branches and seaweed leaves tightly with tails suitable for grasping to fix their bodies so as not to be washed away by rapids. Most species of sea dragons live at the junction of estuaries and the sea, so they can adapt to different concentrations of seawater and even survive in fresh water.

Seahorses and sea dragons have small mouths and are only suitable for eating live bait, while those who are not good at swimming can't prey quickly. Although they are deeply loved by ocean aquarium lovers, this unique habit makes it difficult for them to survive in the aquarium. Although shrimp, rotifer and fry are all suitable bait for them, how to make them full is the key to the survival of seahorses and sea dragons. In the process of feeding, it is necessary to close the filtration system and create a calm and stagnant environment for them to eat slowly and orderly. Another point is their life partners-if seahorses, sea dragons and lively fish are locked together, most of the live bait will be swallowed by those fish first in the feeding process ... Therefore, in order to successfully raise seahorses and sea dragons, according to my experience, it is best to raise them separately in seaweed landscaping tanks with gentle water flow and quiet environment. At the same time, choose small fish with similar living habits, such as? ? ? ? Branch, single? ? ? ? Division? ? ? ? They will be good life companions for seahorses and sea dragons.

Sea fish. This kind of hippocampus is the largest, with a body length of 30 ~ 33 cm. The side is flat and the abdomen is quite convex. Dorsal fin18 ~19; Gluteal fin 4; Pectoral fin 18. Body ring 1 1+39 ~ 40. The trunk bone ring is heptagonal, the tail bone ring is quadrilateral, and the tail end is curled. Except for the head and abdominal spines, all spines on the body are short and blunt, showing tumor-like shape. The crown is low and small, with five short spines at the top and slightly bent back. Kiss is slender and tubular; The length of the kiss is slightly longer than the length of the back of the orbit, which is about equal to the length of the first spine at the back of the eye neck. Eyes are big and sideways. The eye spacing is smaller than the eye diameter and slightly convex. The nose is very small, two on each side, very close, in front of the eyes. Small mouth, located in the snout; When opened, it is slightly semicircular. Toothless. The gill cover is prominent and there is no radial ridge. The branchial foramen is small and located behind the head. The first spinous base is near the back of the neck. The central spine of the back of the neck has two prominent spines; There are infrabuccal spines; There are also short and blunt strong spines in the lower front of the pectoral fin base. The anus is located below the ventral side of the eleventh bone ring of the trunk. The body is scaleless and completely surrounded by the bone ring. All the thorns on the body are underdeveloped, short and blunt; Only the abdominal spine is prominent, and the lower abdominal spine is not prominent. The dorsal fin is long and developed, with 18 ~ 19 fins, which are located on the back of the last two bony rings of the trunk and the first two bony rings of the tail. The anal fin is short and located behind the anus. The pectoral fin is short and wide, slightly fan-shaped and stands sideways. No ventral fins and caudal fins. Each fin has no thorns and no branches. The body is yellowish brown with irregular or cystic white spots and stripes on the side.

▲ place of origin

1. Haima: mainly produced in Yangjiang, Dong Lei, Haikang, Huiyang, Baoan, Zhanjiang, Haifeng, Pingtan, Zhangpu, Putian, Dongshan, Jinjiang, Nan 'an, Fuqing, Haikou, Taiwan Province Province, Penghu Islands and other coastal areas in Guangdong, with the largest output in Guangdong and sold all over the country; In addition, Japan, Malaya, East India, Hawaii and other coastal areas also produce, and some of them were imported before, but now they have stopped.

2. Hippocampus spinosa: mainly produced in Putian, Tong 'an and Zhao 'an in Fujian, coastal areas in Guangdong and Hainan Island, Rizhao, Jiaonan, Qingdao and Yantai in Shandong, Luda, Yahe, Anton in Liaoning, Laoting, Huanghua, Tangshan and Qinhuangdao in Hebei, and sold all over the country.

3. sea maggots: like seahorses

Hippocampus is distributed all over the world, but there are many tropical species. Seahorses usually live in coastal waters with many algae or reefs, or attach to floating objects. It can swim upright, swing its dorsal fin and feed on small crustaceans. The coastal areas around Hainan Island and the offshore areas in the west of Nansha Islands are very suitable for the breeding and growth of seahorses. There are more than ten species, but the species with high medicinal value are spotted hippocampus, thorn hippocampus, Japanese hippocampus and big hippocampus. At present, the artificial breeding of hippocampus has been successful, and Hainan can develop this excellent variety according to local conditions.