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We witnessed this today and it is just too good not to share. A pair of seahorses we have been watching for several weeks spawned this morning and we happened to be there to witness it. Very rare for divers to witness.
When we went to find them they were side by side nearly touching. I knew then that they were about to mate. They will check on each other periodically, but when they are that close something is about to happen. This makes the 4th seahorse mating I have witnessed in the last several years.
We just stayed back and observed. We are thinking this is a young pair as they were kind of clumsy. We watched them about 35 minutes total. They had to make about 3 attempts to "swim up" together and mate. The female finally got in position to deposit her eggs in the males pouch and we think she was at least partially successful. We say partially because some eggs were squirted out in the water and three bicolor damselfish immediately saw the opportunity for a meal and began eating them. I have not witnessed that before. I've seen unsuccessful attempts to deposit the eggs and second or third tries but it was because of heavy current knocking the seahorses out of their ascent and having to drop down and try again. These just acted a little like they were inexperienced. They didn't form the perfect heart shape head to head like we have seen with other pairs when they swam up mating. They do an interesting mating "dance" before the swim up and actual mating happens. The last picture is part of the dance where they rear their heads back together.
But at any rate, once the eggs were deposited in (and around in this case) the male they broke away and went their separate ways. The female will remain in the area and check on the male periodically while she develops the next set of eggs that will be ready in about a month to do it all over again. The female is the one with the more pronounced white and the more vibrant red color. At a depth of 38 feet they both look mostly black with white stripes or a redish redish black. The strobe light of the camera brings out their true colors.
The male will gestate the eggs in his pouch (a very sophisticated live pouch much like a placenta) till the eggs develop into baby seahorses. The male will give birth, likely at night or at least dusk, the babies will "swim up" to the surface for a gulp of air, then float in the open ocean till they find a mat of sargassum grass to attach and float with. Then when they reach an appropriate size will drop onto a reef somewhere to start their adult life.
We were really fortunate to be able to witness something that very few people get to see in the wild. These are some of the pictures Carolynn took of the event.
