What Do Seahorses Eat? - Kylon Powell

Eating Habits of Seahorses

Seahorses are one of the ubiquitous aquatic animals as they have 47 species around the world. As they live underwater, they eat different kinds of sea creatures they can prey upon. Some of the examples include planktons, shrimps, daphnia, and so on! They are not good at swimming; they stay in one place for a long time and wait for their prey to arrive. Seahorse can eat seaweed or coral reef for days before moving on. Because of their variety of feeding, they can search and have a nutritious diet lurking in the water. Let’s dive deep and find out the answer to the burning question, “What do Seahorses eat?”

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Animals

Seahorses eat a great amount of food for their strength to float and swim in the water. Adult seahorses can consume food as many as 50 times every single day! This excessive consumption helps them to eat up as much regularly as their digestive system allows! Hence, their diet can come from a variety of feeding sources.  Seahorse eat invertebrates, planktons, and fish. Seahorses are primarily carnivorous so most of their diet comes from other animals, including their babies. Surprisingly, when the male seahorse gives birth, they feed on their babies. Hence, seahorses eat their babies. That’s why seahorses can eat their young if they’re unable to find anything else. Seahorses don’t eat their mates. However, seahorses can eat food. Seahorses can also eat fish and fish food.

Among other animals, sea horses can eat shrimp, which include Mysis, baby brine, red and ghost shrimps. Seahorses also like to eat rotifers, daphnia, isopods, larval food shrimp, copepods, and liver. Moreover, seahorses can enjoy eating bearer fry, amphipods, scuds, Gammarus, krill, grass shrimps, and cleaner shrimp larvae. It’s interesting to note, though, that they prefer to eat their prey fresh and alive. In captivity, they refuse to eat frozen or dead animals unless they are trained properly to adapt to such a diet.

 Plants

Seahorses swim upright, search for food, and feed on a variety of plant matters including algae. While the primary source of food for seahorses is animals, they eat a variety of plants too. While plankton lies in the category of animals, phytoplankton is a marine algae plant. Hence, seahorses eat plankton regularly. Moreover, seahorses also eat seaweeds, seagrasses, kelps, and algae. They also keep themselves attached to coral reefs for extended periods and eat whatever is available there. However, it happens only when they cannot find a good source of meat.

 What Seahorses Don’t Eat?

While seahorses enjoy plenty of variety of feeding, there are some foods that they do not like to feed on. Seahorses are not huge so they cannot eat animals larger than them. Hence, seahorses don’t eat jellyfish. Seahorses also don’t eat starfish because of the same reason. Seahorses do not eat clownfish because the latter are more agile and stronger. Besides, seahorses also do not usually eat worms, especially the ones larger than themselves. Even during captivity, seahorses always prefer the food they eat in the wild such as the different animals.

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