Seahorses move to the Sounds of Silence section
The Primorsky Aquarium has enlarged its collection of seahorses. The newcomers are being placed in The Sea of Japan/East Sea Exhibit, in the Large Seahorse tank (a plastic figure of a seahorse with a fish tank instead of the belly). Its former dwellers have been moved to the Sounds of Silence section where our visitors can hear different sounds emitted by the most silent sea inhabitants.
Seahorses are among the fishes that make rather loud sounds, they produce clicking noises when they toss their heads catching food.
In the same section of the exhibit there are some other “talking” fishes, for example, the black rockfish whose males emit tapping sounds during mating season and the triggerfish which produces noises similar to frog croaking while moving its fins.
The sea horses can as well be placed in the Masters of Camouflage section due to their natural ability to radically change their color.
“The Sea of Japan Exhibit tanks serve as a home only for one species of seahorses though most of our visitors think that the fish belong to different species”, says Lilia Sharai, a veterinarian at the Primorsky Aquarium. “In fact, the color of the seahorses which have been living in the Aquarium for a long time is soft yellow. On arriving here, the newcomers were also yellow with red spots but within a week they changed their color to blend in with the surrounding habitat and turned almost black with tiny silver spots”.