Horsea is a small, light blue seahorse with tiny scales. Its belly and fin are cream colored. Its tail is always curled up tightly and it has a single fin on its back that is used for locomotion in the water.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Horsea can spray ink from their mouth, and can swim in any direction while still facing forward.
Behavior
Horsea are always known by being sensitive to their surroundings. If they sense trouble, they spit ink towards the instigator and flee. Horsea also spit ink to shoot down flying bugs for food, using its tail to keep its balance. When they are a safe location, they can be seen playfully tangling their tails together. Horsea do like swimming around, making them adept in using their fin. If the ocean current turns fast, however, Horsea will anchor itself by wrapping its tail around rocks or coral to prevent being washed away. Horsea are also known for creating many nests at different coral reefs in the sea.
Horsea are a very common sight in the ocean and ocean caverns. They tend to make their nests in coral. Their home range includes Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Isshu.
Horsea, a Dragon Pokémon. In this unique Pokémon species, thousands of eggs hatch every spring, and then the male raises them himself.
In the manga
Pokémon Adventures
Green had a Horsea on her team, using it in her crafty tricks such as cloaking areas with SmokeScreen or leaving ink trails. It was later transferred to Silver, and eventually evolved into Kingdra.
Horsea eats small insects and moss off of rocks. If the ocean current turns fast, this Pokémon anchors itself by wrapping its tail around rocks or coral to prevent being washed away.
If Horsea senses danger, it will reflexively spray a dense black ink from its mouth and try to escape. This Pokémon swims by cleverly flapping the fins on its back.
This may be a reference to it's ability Sniper, even though sniper doesn't affect accuracy.
In its original artwork, Horsea had a pair of fins instead of just one.
Origin
Horsea is based on a seahorse, though its ability to shoot ink resembles that of a squid. The fact that its known as the Dragon Pokémon might be a reference to Leafy sea dragons.
Name origin
Horsea's name is based on seahorse, with reversed syllables, and the diminutive word horsie. Its Japanese name is a misspelling of 竜 tatsu, dragon, which is part of the common name of a seahorse in Japanese, 竜の落し子 tatsu-no-otoshigo, lit. illegitimate child of a dragon.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.