New Seahorse Babies in the Seville Aquarium’s Nursery
Life has continued in the Seville aquarium during the period it has been closed to the public, and during this time the biology team has achieved the reproduction of several of its species. One of them, the seahorses (Hippocampus hippocampus), are being exhibited for the first time in the aquarium’s nursery tanks.
All the seahorse specimens were born in the aquarium, thus achieving a new objective in the work of breeding and conservation of marine species. “For our center, the conservation of marine species is fundamental. The birth of these offspring took place in a quarantine tank, where the control of the animals is at its maximum” states the curator of the Seville Aquarium, Andrés Loza.
Seahorses are unique animals characterized by being monogamous and because it’s the males who give birth to their offspring after carrying them in their pouch during development. There are more than 35 different types of seahorses, but some are in danger of extinction due to pollution and the deterioration of their habitats, as well as their massive fishing.
In the nursery, other offspring of species such as rays, cuttlefish, pipefish, or eels can also be seen, although what attracts visitors’ attention the most are the shark eggs and their small-spotted catshark and nursehound offspring.
These seahorse babies join the ray offspring that can be observed in the new tank that was inaugurated a few days before the closure. A tank that has been remodeled and in which a lagoon is represented where the rays hide among white sands.