Table 1.

Ethogram of courtship behavior for the pot-bellied seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis

Sequence order	Description
1	Pumping: male inflates the brood pouch with water
2	Interaction: pair oriented against each other
3	Jack-knifing: male approaches a female with the head tucked down and dorsal and pectoral fins rapidly fluttering
4	Promenading: pair in tandem; occurs in short bursts
5	Pointing: pointing the snout upward
6	Rising: pair swimming in tandem toward the water surface

Modified from Woods (2000). These behaviors occur in a well-characterized sequence prior to reproduction (Masonjones and Lewis 1996; Woods 2000). The behaviors pumping and jack-knifing are only performed by male seahorses