Life Cycle
The male seahorse has a pouch on his belly. During mating, the female lays as many as 2,000 eggs into his pouch. The eggs are fertilized inside the pouch, and supporting veins grow around the eggs to give nutrition to the developing babies. About 2-6 weeks later, tiny seahorses hatch and come out of the pouch. The male squeezes his body to push groups of hatched seahorses out of the pouch. This can take two days, and leaves him exhausted. A male and female seahorse may stay together for life. However, some scientists do not think this is so.