Key Laboratory of Marine Bio-resource Sustainable Utilization, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Guangzhou 510301 , P. R. China ; Vero Beach Marine Laboratory, Florida Institute of Technology , Vero Beach, FL 32963 , USA.
Biol Open. 2012 Apr 15;1(4):391-6. doi: 10.1242/bio.2012398. Epub 2012 Feb 24.
Seahorses are the vertebrate group with the embryonic development occurring within a special pouch in males. To understand the reproductive efficiency of the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus Perry, 1810 under controlled breeding experiments, we investigated the dynamics of reproductive rate, offspring survivorship and growth over births by the same male seahorses. The mean brood size of the 1-year old pairs in the 1(st) birth was 85.4±56.9 per brood, which was significantly smaller than that in the 6(th) birth (465.9±136.4 per brood) (P<0.001). The offspring survivorship and growth rate increased with the births. The fecundity was positively correlated with the length of brood pouches of males and trunk of females. The fecundity of 1-year old male and 2-year old female pairs was significantly higher than that from 1-year old couples (P<0.001). The brood size (552.7±150.4) of the males who mated with females that were isolated for the gamete-preparation, was larger than those (467.8±141.2) from the long-term pairs (P<0.05). Moreover, the offspring from the isolated females had higher survival and growth rates. Our results showed that the potential reproductive rate of seahorses H. erectus increased with the brood pouch development.
海马是在雄性体内特殊袋状结构中进行胚胎发育的脊椎动物群体。为了在受控繁殖实验中了解线纹海马（Hippocampus erectus Perry, 1810）的繁殖效率，我们研究了同一雄性海马的生殖率、后代存活率和生长的动态变化。在第一次生育中，1 岁龄配对的平均窝仔数为 85.4±56.9 个，明显小于第 6 次生育（465.9±136.4 个）（P<0.001）。后代存活率和生长速度随生育次数的增加而增加。生殖力与雄性育儿袋长度和雌性躯干长度呈正相关。1 岁龄雄性和 2 岁龄雌性配对的生殖力明显高于 1 岁龄配对（P<0.001）。与来自长期配对（467.8±141.2）的雄性相比，那些与在配子准备阶段隔离的雌性交配的雄性的窝仔数（552.7±150.4）更大（P<0.05）。此外，来自隔离雌性的后代具有更高的存活率和生长速度。我们的研究结果表明，线纹海马的潜在生殖率随着育儿袋的发育而增加。
