Tuesday 19 February 2008

The Seahorse Farm

Sunday saw me tagging along with my family as we went to the Seahorse Farm in Port Adelaide.

I have to say that it was fun.

I mean what isn't to love about seahorses?

On a more serious note the Seahorse Farm is designed to stem the trade of wild harvests of seahorses for aquariums. They say at this present time farming isn't viable for the silly people with their pretend medicine stuff because it is cheaper to get them from the sea.

There also is the rather important fact that farming seahorses means that you will get more of them. Very few baby seahorses actually live to adulthood in the wild but far more will live if they are farmed.

But back to the seahorses.

It was fun watching them. If you know anything about seahorses then you would know that they are somewhat lazy, and they will use their tails to grab onto anything, even other seahorses. So you would at times see a seahorse that was being used as an unwilling anchor for another seahorse.

They had a couple of tanks with baby seahorses. It was amazing to look at them, they were like fully grown seahorses except in miniature. And they had taken a colour as well.

They had some other things there as well. There were a few clownfish, some other animals that you can find off the coast and under the jetties, and we also had the opportunity of patting a dog shark. If you have ever patted a shark then you would know that it is rather similar to patting wet sandpaper.

Finally there were two other animals that you could look at.

The first were some Weedy Sea Dragons, which are okay to look at but there was also an amazing looking Leafy Sea Dragon, which is the state emblem.

If you ever find yourself in Adelaide I say with all certainty that you should go to the Seahorse Farm. Honestly, do it. Go now if you have to.

1 comment:

Felicia said...

Seahorses are actually bred in captivity to relieve pressure on wild stock by the TCM. In China, where they are worth their weight in silver, hey are sold literally by the TONS (that's dry weight.) Aquarium sales of seahorses pale by comparison.

The reason they are bred in captivity for the aquarium trade is in part due to the fact that captive bred seahorses are hardier and easier to keep than wild caught seahorses.

You might be interested in reading this:

http://aquariumadventures.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-of-you-are-new-to-seahorses-and.html