# Sea Horses - did anyone order them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093 "2025-03-25T15:20:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/21 "2025-03-25T19:54:26Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > The item that I wanted from those comic book ads was the x-ray glasses. In case you never saw a real set, they have you peer through some gauze that softens edges. I forget how/when I finally saw some, I didn’t buy them myself but and you _knew_ they was going to be a bust but what a giant letdown. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/22 "2025-03-25T20:10:47Z")
Those are Nothobranchius, the annual killifish. There are other species of killies that spawn in a normal fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/23 "2025-03-25T20:31:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Those are Nothobranchius, the annual killifish. Yeah, that’s the genus - there’s a dazzling array of species. I don’t know of anyone who keeps the non annual varieties, but some of them are quite pretty. I’m not sure why they’re not more popular! I do see online that they’re kept, I’ve just never come across it I guess. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/24 "2025-03-25T22:47:18Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Well, they carry the fertilized eggs in a pouch that they then come out of, so it’s not quite a placental pregnancy. > > Sea horse eggs _can_ hatch outside the male, too, although there’s a lower rate of viability. But I’m not sure if sea horse eggs can be shipped. The only fish whose eggs are shipped dry to my knowledge is the Killifish. This is really interesting: > **[Crazy horses](https://www.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/crazy-horses)** > > Male pregnancy in seahorses and pipefish I had no idea the same hormones are involved in seahorse gestation as in mammalian pregnancy. According to the article the brood pouch performs some of the same functions as a placenta, and in their experiment they found the diet of father and mother independently affected the health and morphology of the offspring - it really doesn’t sound like you’d be able to send the eggs though the post and have them hatch successfully. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/25 "2025-03-26T00:49:30Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ujRwl6dL9go/hqdefault.jpg "Male Seahorse") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujRwl6dL9go) ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/26 "2025-03-26T10:18:03Z")
I ordered them. Unfortunately it was cold the day they were delivered and only one made it. It lived for quite a while, though. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/27 "2025-03-26T13:01:19Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > It lived for quite a while, though. In an unheated, unfiltered fish bowl, like the ad implies? ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/28 "2025-03-26T13:14:25Z")
I had a small saltwater aquarium in the late '60s - early '70s, and successfully raised seahorses for a while. But I bought the original pair from a tropical fish store. The adults grew to about three inches in that limited environment. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/29 "2025-03-26T17:28:08Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > [@blondebear](#): > > > > The item that I wanted from those comic book ads was the x-ray glasses. > > In case you never saw a real set, they have you peer through some gauze that softens edges. I forget how/when I finally saw some, I didn’t buy them myself but and you _knew_ they was going to be a bust but what a giant letdown. The pair I tried must have had a diffraction grating or similar. It definitely looked like each finger had a central, darker “bone”. Of course every thing you looked at had the same bone in it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/30 "2025-03-26T17:30:29Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Sea Horses range up to a little over a foot long. > Though the pygmy is only about an inch. Which means the size of Aquaman has been greatly overrepresented. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/31 "2025-03-26T18:03:22Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > The pair I tried must have had a diffraction grating or similar. It may have been, I saw the xray specs before I knew about diffraction grating. I sort of remember it being dark fabric, maybe lacy? but could gave been grating ridges. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/32 "2025-03-26T18:27:32Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Moral: never buy sight unseen. I got a really cool-ass car that way! ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/33 "2025-03-26T19:33:51Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Dang, people ordered these and they survived? Yes, people ordered them (I did); no, they did not survive very long. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/34 "2025-03-26T19:37:00Z")
You’re one lucky, guy. Right? 😊 ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/35 "2025-03-26T21:23:32Z")
Yes. It was a lot of work. I should have waited until I was older and had an actual aquarium, and gotten them from a pet store. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/36 "2025-03-26T22:01:00Z")
I found this Youtube short. It’s the first time I’ve seen video of sea horses. [https://youtube.com/shorts/I49g\_Xyr\_0U?si=QMsz\_GbjGdn3h-A0](https://youtube.com/shorts/I49g_Xyr_0U?si=QMsz_GbjGdn3h-A0) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/37 "2025-03-26T23:24:01Z")
May I ask how it was delivered? I’m assuming a truck brought it to them, although a shipping crate wouldn’t surprise me. I actually heard of people transporting small children that way back in the day! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093/38 "2025-03-26T23:26:30Z")
I’m in the midst of watching this miniseries right now! It’s insane, as are the people in it. They make the Joe Exotic crew look positively normal. > **[Chimp Crazy (TV Mini Series 2024) ⭐ 7.3 | Documentary, Crime](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32937646/)** > > | TV-MA [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-horses-did-anyone-order-them/1016093.md?page=1)