Conquering white seahorses

Over 10 years of doing science, recently, Ms. Ho Thi Hoa has achieved what she is interested in: researching some rare seahorses in the Vietnamese sea.

She is considered 'cool' when tame this difficult fish. From this success, she was called by many colleagues with the affectionate name: "Seahorse" Flower.

'Coast guard' seahorses

Hoa graduated with a Bachelor degree in Aquaculture, University of Vinh (Nghe An) and is currently a staff of the Department of Aquaculture Technology of the Institute of Oceanography (Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa). "The biggest difficulty is how to create a herd of 'parent' white seahorses (F1) to actively serve for breeding. This is an extremely rare and very difficult fish to keep fish. " Ms. Hoa said.

White-bodied seahorses live offshore with a depth of 20 - 150 m. When caught, fish often die, get shocked or explode their eyes due to pressure changes. According to Ms. Hoa, taking initiative in source of broodstock will limit the over-exploitation and preserve fish resources in the wild.

White seahorse.Photo: Le Xuan

In early 2009, Ms. Hoa accidentally bought white body horse fish carrying eggs in the wild. After 9 months of hard work, she created a group of F1 fish with hundreds of children.

Finding the white body horse fish was difficult, raising fish was difficult because this species was used to live in waters with depths from a few dozen meters to hundreds of meters. When born, they often suffer from a number of diseases so they are easy to die. Therefore, her research creates a survival rate of commercial fish reaching about 60% which can be considered a great success. At 9 months of age, the white-bodied seahorse herd has reached 22cm in size and more than 30 grams in weight.

Will transfer technology to fishermen

The species of seahorses in the world usually have a length of less than 20 cm, while the white body seahorses with the largest size can reach 35 cm. White body seahorse has a scientific name: Hippocampus Kellogi . This type of fish is very rare. They are named in the Vietnam Red Book. In Vietnam, this species was discovered in the waters of Danang - Vung Tau.

Ms. Ho Thi Hoa is next to a white-bodied seahorses.Photo: Le Xuan

According to the market price in Vietnam, white-bodied seahorses of 25-30 cm in size cost from 800,000 to 1,000,000 VND each. Many people believe that eating seahorses will increase vitality and increase spermatogenicity in men. Compared to many other seahorses, white seahorses have the largest size, very high levels of amino acids and unsaturated fatty acids. Especially the content of DHA (Docosa Hexaenoic Acid, a fatty acid with a brain tonic effect), zinc and manganese in fish is also quite high.

'Research is necessary, but the issue of conservation and resource recovery is equally important,' Hoa said. Therefore, she is raising her white baby seahorses so that after one month she will release them to the sea.

According to Mr. Chu Anh Khanh, Communication Technician Officer of the Institute of Oceanography, the Institute continues to maintain the F1 white horse body to form broodstock to create healthy F2 and F3 generations. On the other hand, the Institute will provide seed and technology transfer to fishermen so they have the opportunity to develop and enrich this rare fish.