Seahorse Mating Dance!

Following up on the previous post, we wonder why the seahorses actually have to engage in this mating dance! :) Well, here is a brief description of what happens during a seahorse mating dance.

Before seahorses begin mating, they first have to do a mating dance! As shown in the previous video, they swim together and link their tails.

Seahorses linking their tails!

Here's an explanation of the seahorse "courtship dance"!


Before breeding, seahorses actually put a lot of effort into the courtship, and court each other for several days. Why? It is believed that the dance synchronizes their movement patterns so that the male can receive the eggs when the female is ready to deposit them into his pouch.

Male seahorse swelling up! :)

During the courtship dance, they may change color (by lightening or darkening their skin), or swim side-by-side, tails entwined, or grip the same blade of sea grass with their tail and whirl around depending on the seahorse. The female aligns a long tube called an ovipositor with the males pouch and this is known as the pre-dawn dance.

Seahorses have only one mate and thus, during the mating period they engage in a lengthy courtship. The actual courtship dance lasts about eight hours.

The male pumps water through the egg pouch on his trunk which then expands and opens and allows the female to deposit her eggs. These eggs range in numbers, from dozens to thousands. She does this by inserting her oviduct into the male's brooding pouch.

By doing this for several times for short intervals, she avoids exhaustion. During the breaks, the male contorts himself to try to get the eggs in place in his brood pouch. After the last egg is safely inside the male's brood pouch, it seals up and he stretches and twists his body to settle the eggs comfortably in the pouch. Finally, the male moves away and attaches himself by his tail to a nearby plant while the female moves away too and waits for her oviduct to recede. It usually recedes within a few hours. 

 The eggs are left there until they hatch. Afterward, the female's body shrinks and slims, while, ironically, the male's body swells. At last, they will let go of any anchors and snout-to-snout, drift upward out of the seagrass, often spiraling as they rise.