Читать книгу Clinical Guide to Fish Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 72

These were historically classified within the Gasterosteiformes. The seahorses, sea dragons, and pipefish are within the family Syngnathidae. They have thick dermal scutes or plates. Seahorses have prehensile tails and lack caudal fins. Gills are unique with lobate gill filaments and a spherical appearance; there is a small opening on the top of the head instead of an operculum, limiting access to the gills. The oral cavity is a tube with an upturned mouth. The esophagus makes a sharp curve downward at the neck which requires gentle manipulation to get past when gavaging. Some species are aglomerular, others have some glomeruli (Stoskopf 1993; Koldewey 2005). The male maintains the brood in a pouch or on a patch at the base of the tail (Helfman et al. 2009). In the male, the elongated genital opening caudal to the anal fin represents the opening to the brood pouch; the anal opening is cranial to the anal fin. In females, no patch or pouch is present and the reproductive and anal openings are both cranial to the small anal fin.