Gallery: Baby Pygmy Seahorses Are Even Cuter Than You Think
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A 10-day old baby Bargibant's pygmy seahorse hunts a copepod.
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Steinhart's marine biologists put a pink variant of the sea horse's favored coral in their tank as an experiment.
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The male and female Bargibant's pygmy seahorse on its favored yellow coral.
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Bargibant's pygmy seahorse blend seamlessly with the the Muricella paraplectana. Can you see both adults?
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A 12-day old baby hunting brine shrimp.
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The male adult pygmy sea horse with a pencil eraser for scale.
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Every morning, the male and female do 30-60 minutes of synchronized twitching.
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When sea horses mate, the female inserts the eggs into the male's pouch using an appendage called an ovipositor.
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Biologist Matt Wandell and aquarium director Bart Shepherd have a bet to see whether the babies turn pink or orange. Wandell believes their coloration is genetic, and they'll be orange like their parents. Shepherd believes the environment plays a role, and there will be an even distribution of orange and pink sea horses.
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A one-day old baby pygmy sea horse.
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Another one-day old baby pygmy sea horse.
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A pair of one-day old baby pygmy sea horses near the surface of their tank. The 1/4 inch acrylic to their left shows how small they are.
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A 16-day old baby eating a copepod. Wandell says their jerky, picking hunting method is called "snicking."
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A one-day old baby on a ruler. Scale is millimeters.
