# do male sea horses have the babies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 8, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306 "2000-03-08T14:38:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jjjfishe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jjjfishe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjjfishe)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306/1 "2000-03-08T14:38:00Z")

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Do male sea horses have babies?

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**Author:** ![Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diver)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306/2 "2000-03-08T14:40:00Z")

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Sort of. They incubate the fertilized eggs in a pouch and release the little guys at the right time.

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**Author:** ![curious\_george](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b487fb/32.png) [@curious\_george](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious_george)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306/3 "2000-03-08T14:42:00Z")

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Yes, I learned that when I visited the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. So, it’s the males that play hard to get.

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306/4 "2000-03-08T16:02:00Z")

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Even though the males do most of the work carrying the pregnancy, contrary to expectations they still do most of the work to try to attract the females, not the other way around. There is a review of seafish courtship at: [http://www.calacademy.org/calwild/archives/seahorse.htm](http://www.calacademy.org/calwild/archives/seahorse.htm) which notes that: “The male, head bowed, will perform an elaborate dance around the female, often wrapping his tail around her or mimicking her movements. The male also changes color, brightening their body to a light yellow or white while their spine area darkens. During this seahorse tango, the male will open his empty pouch to the female. If the female likes what she sees, she raises her head up and down in something of an affirming nod, and the two rise vertically in the water column.”

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**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-male-sea-horses-have-the-babies/8306/5 "2000-03-08T19:47:00Z")

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Kinda makes an evening of bowling and Dairy Queen superfluous, don’t it?

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If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.