Disclaimer: What? Pokemon belongs to Nintendo? Oh darn.
Common Name: Horsea, Tattu (Juvenile), Seadra (adult)
Scientific Name: Hippocampus venenifer
Description: Seadra are medium-sized, strangely shaped fish pokemon. They measure 47 inches long when stretched out, but their tails are often coiled, making them appear smaller. Their bodies, instead of being horizontally inclined as a normal fish, hang vertically in the water. Their trunks are rigid, supported by bony plates underneath the skin that allow little flexibility. Their tails are long and prehensile, without a tail fin, while their heads have an extended, rigid tubular mouth. Seadra have three bony crests on their heads and spiked fins behind each eye, in front of the gills. Another set of fins reside on the trunk, with three pale tips equipped with spines. Their scales are pale blue in color, with a white underbelly and white eyes.
Young Seadra, called Horsea, look quite similar to the adults, but are far smaller (only 16 inches fully extended) and lack ridges on their heads. Their pectoral fins are round and simple, unlike the striking, indented ones of Seadra. Horsea eyes are red.
Range: Seadra are found all along Kanto's coastal seas, as well as in the Sevii Islands, Johto's Whirl Islands and some reefs off south-central Hoenn. They have also been introduced by careless trainers to a saltwater lake in northern Kanto, and have been deliberately released in the Northeastern Island of Sinnoh.
Habitat: Seadra are generally reef pokemon, taking shelter in coral and holding onto it with their flexible tails. However, in some areas they have adapted to brackish water, as in Cerulean Cave, and to areas where there is no coral, but they do less well in such habitats. They require warm water, and in the Northeastern Island flock to the hot springs surrounding Stark Mountain.
Call: When threatened, Seadra are capable of squealing surprisingly loudly. They are otherwise silent.
Diet: Seadra feed off of small reef invertebrates and fish, sucking them in with their long snouts. Like most fish, they create a vacuum by rapidly opening their mouths, and a Seadra's extended jaws allow them to create a larger vacuum.
Life Cycle: Seadra do not have a breeding season, but rather pair off all year, whenever there is enough food around to support young. Females lay thousands of eggs on the male's belly, where he fertilizes them. They remain attached to him until they hatch, at which point he ignores them.
The larval Horsea float in the current, and many fall prey to other pokemon before they mature. However, there are so many of them that a few, at least, survive to adulthood.
Seadra live approximately 25 years.
Relationship with Humans: despite the Seadra's venomous fin spikes and bony body, Hoenn fishermen sometimes target them for the supposed medicinal properties of their bones. This belief applies only to adult Seadra, not Horsea, which in some areas creates a population imbalance wherein almost the entire population consists of juveniles. Stronger restrictions are needed to prevent a complete fishery collapse.
However, outside of fishing pressure in Hoenn, the Seadra population seems to be doing well. Their swift reproductive rate allows them to rebound fairly well from pressure from trainers, and they are not considered threatened.
Naturalist's Notes: Like many sea dwelling pokemon, Seadra can squirt water at high pressure from their mouths, a behavior that serves as a quick getaway mechanism when threatened, and is often co-opted as an offensive weapon. Uniquely, Seadra can mix a dark ink with the water they squirt, clouding the water and preventing a predator from seeing them.
Unusually, Seadra's somatic cells mutate as they mature, and actually contain genes not found in Horsea's somatic cells. The reasons behind this is the subject of much genetic research.
If you encounter a Seadra, even a trained one, do not touch it! Seadra have spines on their heads and fins, and even a small prick with one is mind-blowingly painful. It is possible that compounds from this venom are responsible for the trade in medicinal Seadra, though there is a frustrating lack of studies on the biochemistry of Seadra venom.