Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Small group of baby seahorses survive their first month in north-east

One of the surviving seahorses at Macduff Marine Aquarium.
One of the surviving seahorses at Macduff Marine Aquarium.

A group of seahorse babies, who were born in the north-east, have beaten the odds of survival by turning one month old.

Macduff Marine Aquarium officials were delighted when the male hippocampus guttulatus gave birth to over 100 offspring last month.

Eight of the fry, the collective term for baby seahorses, have survived despite previous captive breeding being unsuccessful due to their specific feeding requirements.

Even in the wild, only one in every 2,000 babies makes it to adulthood, which they reach in a six-month period.

The brood, who came into the world sometime on the weekend of June 24, were the first of their kind in Macduff and measured a mere 6mm.

Although the eight sea horses have survived this long, there’s still a few hurdles they have to overcome before reaching adulthood.

Chris Rowe, aquarium displays officer said: “We’re delighted to have managed to keep eight baby seahorses alive for their first month.

“They have grown to about 3cm long and have been doing really well.

“This is now a critical stage for them as we need to wean the babies off the tiny plankton they have been eating and onto larger food.

“There are still no guarantees any of them will survive to adulthood, but we are pleased with progress so far and are cautiously optimistic for these little ones.”

Their father is now expecting another fry which it is hoped will arrive within the next two to three weeks.