If Seahorses Don’t Have a Stomach, How Do They Eat?

Interestingly, seahorses have a small body and do not have a stomach. A living thing shouldn’t have a stomach.It’s hard to even imagine, isn’t it? Moreover, the same situation applies to platypus or lungfish.

In our content today, we will explain this situation through seahorses. Why don’t seahorses have a stomach and how do they feed without a stomach?

Let’s start from the basics. Why don’t seahorses have a stomach?

As you know, seahorses have tiny and thin bodies. Being stomachless allows them to remain light and agile. Thus, they are more comfortable both while swimming and hunting. Also the food they hunt (plankton, small crustaceans, etc.) It can be digested in the intestines without the need for a stomach.

In this way, they can digest food quickly and use energy immediately. Since the stomach uses energy to produce enzymes and acids to digest food, it could consume too much of the seahorse’s energy. So right now they don’t have stomachs chances of survival increase We can also say.

So how do they feed without a stomach?

They take in food by sucking it with their long tube-shaped mouth. Their prey passes immediately from their mouths to their intestines, and their digestive systems quickly break down and absorb it. Digestive enzymes are secreted in the intestines.

Additionally, seahorses cannot store food because they do not have a stomach. It has to hunt and feed constantly. That’s why they consume food both frequently and in small amounts. In short, quickly digesting food and converting it into energy contributes to their survival.

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