Reading and vocabulary. Seahorse

Seahorses are tiny fishes that are named for the shape of their head, which looks like the head of a tiny horse. There are at least 25 species of seahorses.

You’ll find seahorses in the world’s tropical and temperate coastal waters, swimming upright among seaweed and other plants. Seahorses use their dorsal fins (back fins) to propel slowly forward. To move up and down, seahorses adjust the volume of air in their swim bladders, which is an air pocket inside their bodies.

Tiny, spiny plates cover            [seahorses, seahorses'] bodies all the way down to their curled, flexible tails. The tail can grasp objects,          [helpful, helpless] when seahorses want           [to anchor, anchoring] themselves to vegetation.

A female seahorse lays dozens, sometimes hundreds, of      in a pouch on the male seahorse’s abdomen. Called a brood pouch, it resembles a kangaroo’s pouch for          young. Seahorse young hatch after up to 45 days in the brood pouch. The baby seahorses, each about the size of a jelly      , find other baby seahorses and float together in small groups, clinging to each other using their       . Unlike kangaroos, baby seahorses do not return to the pouch. They must find      and hide from           as soon as they’re born.