It is a fish. But with such a particular shape that it is difficult to classify it as a fish.

What makes it unmistakable is above all the characteristic horse-like snout. Enough to justify the Latin scientific name of the genus Hippocampus, the so-called Seahorse of which there are 54 species. Present in all oceans and seas, except the cold ones. And it is also widespread in the Mediterranean, where it lives at low depths, up to twenty meters, mainly among the rocks of the seabed or in the Posidonia meadows, but also in brackish areas.

Small in size, it can reach twenty-one centimeters, but is usually less than twenty. The body is covered by a bony armor with rounded spines and a protective crown of the same nature and consistency surrounds the head. This characteristic protects it from most potential predators, which prefer less tough species. Its great camouflage ability is also favorable. Its color is between dark green and brown, tending towards yellowish. It has white spots and stripes on its abdomen to confuse it with the other animal and plant elements that make up its habitat.

The seahorse has a dorsal fin and pectoral fins corresponding to the gills. However, the caudal fin is missing in its classic version, which has given way to a prehensile tail, with which the animal anchors itself to sponges and Posidonia, but which it keeps rolled up when swimming.

Another peculiarity of the seahorse is its upright, vertical position, which allows it to only move forward, since it cannot swim backwards. Furthermore, it is a very slow swim, due to the smallness of its fins, so it moves thanks to the movement of the currents. Thanks to its swim bladder, it can float.

Despite its slowness and small size, the seahorse is a very skilled predator in obtaining food, mostly made up of small crustaceans, fish larvae and plankton, which it captures with a fairly refined technique, sucking them in with its elongated snout and, since it has no stomach, it needs to feed continuously.

Females are larger than males, who have a much more pronounced belly. All this is functional to the peculiarity that most distinguishes seahorses, namely the reversal of roles for what is called male pregnancy. The species is monogamous and ovoviviparous. Females deposit their eggs in a sac that the male has. The male carries the gestation for about three weeks, before giving birth to about 500 fry, which from that moment on do not receive any further care. After birth, they enter a planktonic phase that lasts about eight weeks.

The seahorse lives between four and seven years. While not considered particularly endangered, it is suffering from coastal habitat loss and has been overfished for use in Asian medicine and for drying and making gadgets.