8 posts tagged “seahorses”
Last weekend, I went to Baltimore to meet up with some Seahorse.org friends at the National Aquarium! It's amazing, how the members of the Org will drive hours to meet people we only know from an internet forum. But we do meet, and we end up having a good time, becoming friends. Athe Aquarium , we saw the Australia exhibit (birds, fish, reptiless and plants ... even some insects and amphibians!) and we saw a seahorse giving birth to hundreds of tiny fry!
Shopping at the Aquarium gift shop was way too tempting. I spent too much on a pair of seahorse earrings and various Chotchkies.
Even Jill got a present! Here she is in her new nightshirt. from the Aquarium giftshop.
I drove down there with a friend, Susie, who lives near me. After meeting up with several other Orgers, Susie, her siter Carol and I went shopping at Harbor Place .
This is what they do. They hang around.
And they go a-courtin'.
The male, on the right, inflates his pouch and shows it off to the female. She in turn, mimics his movements, throwing her head back when he does, etc. They do this "dance" daily. When they really mean business, an egg transfer will occur. They will swim to the top of the tank, face each other, and she will deposit her eggs into his pouch, where they will be fertilzed. He will then carry them to term (two to three weeks, depending on the species), and give birth to live fry!
Can you find the seahorse in this picture? This is in a home aquarium, mind you, not out in the bay!
And I do believe these wee ones have paired up ... at least for now.
Thanks, Frank from Adaptive Aquaculture and Dan from SeahorseSource.com!
It's not that I'm ungrateful for all I've got, believe me. I have more than my share. I'm very happy and consider myself a lucky gal. But, you know how it is. I keep a list .... of cool stuff I'd love to have. So, this is the list, part the first:
- Six Hippocampus breviceps seahorses. These are on their way, btw, from Australia, as I type. With good weather and a bit of luck, I'll be posting pics of them before you know it!
- An octopus. Yes, I know. A longshot. But someday, when I have a basement ...
- A basement. Of course, a small house or townhouse would have to be attached to it ... or a groundfloor condo. Renting is a drag.
- A hedgehog. Oh my. They are so curious and cute. Not very cuddly, though.
- Two British Giant rabbits. Silver ones. Big. Really big. And active. When I have a fenced-in yard. Imagine coming home from work and having two enormous bunnies bounding up to the garden fence to say welcome home.
- A fenced-in yard. Saw that coming.
- A tortoise. Russian, to be specific. He could live in the fenced-in yard with the enormous bunnies. I'd have to make sure the fence ran deep, so they won't tunnel into trouble.
- A manatee. Okay, that's crazy. But I at least want to hug one someday.
Life is too short not to spend every free sunny hour at the beach. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Madison to catch some sun, swim in the Sound, and meet my bud Steve for lunch. Sunday, I'm hoping to collect seagrass from the shore in Westerly, Rhode Island. The seagrass is for my temperate seahorse tank, of which I shall post interminably at a later date. Suffice to say it has consumed all my discretionary income and most of my free time since I started it.
