You will often see one or two seahorses together in a tank at a time.
If you see two seahorses in an aquarium, they should be of the same sex, otherwise, they will be constantly breeding.
You will rarely see a group of seahorses together in the wild, but if you do, what is a group of seahorses called?
Although they usually live alone or in pairs for breeding, a group of seahorses is called a herd.
This sounds simple, but there is more to explain.
Do Seahorses Live in a Group?
Apparently, pygmy seahorses live in groups of up to 20 but most seahorses live alone unless they are mating.
Seahorses live alone because they use stealthy ways to hunt their food and hide from their predators.
Why Don’t Most Seahorses Live in a Group?
Seahorses Hunt by Themselves
Seahorses like to use their long monkey-like tails to anchor themselves to seagrass, plants, or a piece of coral. Once they are anchored, they then camouflage themselves by changing color to match the color of their background which is usually what they are anchored to.
Seahorses don’t have a stomach, so whatever they eat goes straight to their digestive tract and is pooped out rather quickly. Because of this, they will eat 30-50 times per day, mostly shrimp, but as long as it is meat and can fit into their snout, they will probably eat it.
All they do is sit camouflaged and when a shrimp swims within range, they use their s-shaped body to spring forward while using the suction from their aerodynamic snout to suck in their prey, over and over again during the day.
This stealthy hunting method is one of the reasons why seahorses don’t live in a group. It would be hard to compete for food if you eat 20-30 times per day and one of your stealthy seahorse partners is hunting too close to you.
Territory/ Safe From Predators
Other reasons seahorses live by themselves is because they have their own territory and they don’t have to worry about predators. They have few predators because the outer bony structure of a seahorse is so strong that few animals can bite through it.
However, one of the main predators they do have are crabs.
Crabs tend to habit the same shallow water as seahorses and the pinschers of a crab are actually strong enough to break through the bony structure of a seahorse.
Crabs still have to be able to see the seahorse, which is usually camouflaged, but if they do see it, a crab will eat a seahorse if he/she can catch it.
Hard to Sustain Population
When seahorses have babies, the babies are already developed and self-sufficient.
Their parents don’t have anything to do with them. In fact, their parents may even eat them if they stick around instead of swimming away after birth.
Because babies leave their parents right away their survival rate is less than 5 percent. If seahorses lived in a group, then the other seahorses would eat the babies as well. Then none of them may survive.
Do Lined Seahorses Live in Groups?
Lined seahorses are one of the exceptions that live in groups of 20, but they do live in pairs when they are breeding.
The habitat they live in is tropical/temperate saltwater of the ocean. They are found in Nova Scotia, the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and in-home aquariums or local aquariums.
What is a Group of Baby Seahorses Called?
Baby seahorses are called ‘fry’ but they aren’t much of a group once they are born. They are raised in a pouch on the male seahorse, called a brood pouch. When they are born they are already self-sufficient and are left to fend for themselves, unless their parents eat them first!
What is the Plural of Seahorse?
The plural form of seahorse is ‘seahorses‘, although you can say, “There are more than one species of seahorse.”
Conclusion
I hope we have explained what a group of seahorses is called, and why most of them don’t live in groups. If you liked this article, please check out our other articles on seahorses.
