•  
  •  
 

INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF SEASONAL VARIATION ON CIRRI APPENDAGES IN DWARF SEAHORSES **

Abstract

Dwarf seahorses (Hippocamus zosterae) are cryptic fishes found in coastal marine environments that grow cirri, which are skin filaments theorized to aid in camouflaging and mate preference. Cirri presence has been reported to vary across seahorse species and tend to disappear in captive individuals, but we do not know what factors cause changes in cirri length and appearance. By analyzing the cirri on seahorses from various collection events throughout the year in Tampa Bay, we aim to determine how seasonal variation influences the presence of cirri across the sexes and age distributions in the wild. Seahorses were photographed after collection, and cirri were documented for four locations on the fish’s body, including eyes, head, crown, and body segments. Preliminary results indicate that cirri on some parts of the body are more numerous and ornamented in the wet season while seahorse populations are more abundant in the wild. Ongoing analyses averaging cirri presence across individual head spots also show a difference in cirri between the wet and dry season. Analyses are also being conducted to determine if the presence of the cirri varies across the juveniles compared to sexually mature adult seahorses. Previous studies on European seahorses indicate that larger fish had more cirri, therefore future directions include measuring body sizes of the seahorses to investigate this relationship in the dwarf seahorse. The results from this illuminate potential seasonal adaptations to changing environmental conditions for wild populations of seahorses.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS