Aquarium Celebrates Rare Seahorse Births

Delighted keepers at Tynemouth's Blue Reef Aquarium are celebrating the birth of five rare seahorses.

The babies are members of what's believed to be the world's largest species of seahorse - the Australian Big-Belly - which can reach in excess of 20cms.

The parents originally arrived from a captive breeding programme in Australia. Blue Reef is one of the few aquariums in the country which has been able to successfully breed this particular species of seahorse.

"The parents have been displaying to each other and taking part in courtship rituals for several weeks now," explained curator Chris Horn.

"However it was still a massive thrill when we came in to find the tiny babies swimming around the display. They have now given birth to a second batch and they are also doing extremely well."

Several juveniles are on display while more newborn babies are being looked after in the aquarium's quarantine facility.

The seahorse is unique in the animal kingdom in that it is the male rather than the female which carries the babies and gives birth to them via a special brood pouch on their stomach.

In the wild virtually all of the approximate 35 species of seahorse are now under threat from a variety of sources. These include loss of habitat, pollution, the souvenir trade and traditional Far East medicine - believed to account for the deaths of more than 20 million seahorses annually.

The big-bellied seahorses at the Blue Reef Aquarium are part of a captive-breeding programme which aims to ease the pressure on wild populations.