Amazing Adaptations


The Amazing Adaptations Gallery displays a diverse collection of seahorses, seadragons and pipefishes. These fishes are members of an unusual fish family, known as family Syngnathidae, and share some unusual characteristics. Perhaps most notably, the male fishes in this family carry the eggs and the females show no parental care. Some species even exhibit true male pregnancy and are the only animals known to do so. Other characteristics of these fish include elongated bodies enclosed in bony armor, tubular fused snouts, and the need to eat almost continuously due to the lack of a stomach. There are nearly 200 known pipefish species, 47 known seahorse species, and only two known seadragon species.

Extending over 60 feet of gallery wall and holding over 3,000-gallons of water, the gallery includes nine exhibits that display species ranging from local Hawaiian pipefishes and seahorses to exotic Australian seadragons. Additionally, two seahorse nursery tanks display juvenile seahorses bred at the aquarium and the live food these fish require to survive in captivity.