Paternal Care in Seahorses

Seahorses and pipefish:

• have physical specialiazations for male parental care
• form monogamous pair bonds
• mate repeatedly during the breeding season

The inversion of roles in parental care does not carry over into the seahorse mating system. Even though males take on the care of developing zygotes through "pregnancy", the rate of reproduction in seahorses is limited by the amount of time it takes females to develop new eggs. Thus the mating system is like conventional monogamous systems in which the female cares for the zygotes; the females are more choosy of their mates than are males, and males compete more intensely than females for mates (Mansonjones, H. D. and S. M. Lewis, 2000).

Berglund, A., Rosenquist, G, and I. Svensson. 1988. Multiple mating and paternal brood care in the pipefish Syngnathus typhle. Oikos. 51:184-188.

Blumer, L. S. 1979. Male parental care in the bony fishes. Quart. Rev. Biol. 54:149-161.

Masonjones, H. D. and S. M. Lewis. 2000. Differences in potential reproductive rates of male and female seahorses related to courtship roles. Anim. Behav. 59:11-20.