In our recent trip to Bristol Aquarium we were able to learn about more than just fish.

Throughout the day a number of talks were held, one of them being all about the care of seahorses. Seahorses are small marine fish that are mainly found in shallow, tropical waters all over the world. At Bristol Aquarium we found out about how these fascinating creatures are looked after, and were able to get up close and personal to adult, and baby seahorses.

The talk was held by Jennifer Humphrey, seahorse expert at Bristol Aquarium. Jennifer looks after and cares for these species every day. Her daily routine requires feeding the seahorses three times a day, ensuring their living environment is clean and checking on the seahorses to make sure they are all ok. One of Jennifer’s other important roles is arranging the seahorses that will be moving to another aquarium, and welcoming the new ones that arrive to the aquarium in Bristol.

Jennifer explained what her favourite part about her job is: “I have always been fascinated by seahorses since being very young. I have worked at Bristol Aquarium for 7 years now and absolute love it. I love being able to interact with our guests and sharing knowledge on sea horses with them.”

She added: “Young children in particular love watching sea horses and it’s really cute to watch as that was what I was like when my parents took me to aquariums.”

Seahorses range in size, however the baby seahorses that were only 6 weeks old at Bristol Aquarium were no bigger that the size of an adults thumb. Whilst wild seahorses eat forms of shrimp, crab, krill and crayfish, the seahorses at Bristol Aquarium were only fed krill. Because the baby seahorses were still too young, their krill was liquidized down for easy digestion.

Another interesting fact about seahorses is that it is actually the males who gives birth. The male seahorse is equipped with a pouch at the front of their stomach where the female releases her eggs. The male then carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days until the seahorses are fully developed.

During the talk, Jennifer also spoke about the dangers that seahorses face in the wild. She explained: “Seahorses all over the world are captured out of their natural habitat, killed and dried up to be used for different things. This is one major factor causing the extension of these animals. They are used to be sold on the streets abroad, used in Chinese medicines and even to be eaten.”

There are more than 54 species of seahorses in oceans all around the world, and making sure they are kept safe and looked after properly is something Bristol Aquarium ensures to maintain.

For more information on Bristol Aquarium click here.