Horsea is a small, light blue seahorse with tiny scales. It has no arms or legs, only a single fin on its back and a tightly curled tail. Its belly and fin are cream colored, and it has red eyes. There are three spike-like projections on either side of its head. The single fin on its back 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 their tail to keep their balance. When they are a safe location, they can be seen playfully tangling their tails together. Horsea do like swimming around, making them adept at using their fin. If the ocean current turns fast, however, Horsea will anchor themselves by wrapping their 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 Unova.
Green had a Horsea on her team that she received from Silver in exchange for her Snubbull following their escape from the Masked Man, using it in her crafty tricks such as cloaking areas with SmokeScreen or leaving ink trails. It was later transferred back to Silver, and eventually evolved into Kingdra.
Lance's Horsea was seen in a flashback of his and Clair's childhood.
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.
In its original artwork, Horsea had a pair of fins instead of just one.
Even though Horsea learns Leer via level, Horsea cannot learn any physical attacks without TMs.
Origin
Horsea is based on a seahorse, though its ability to shoot ink resembles that of a squid. The fact that it's known as the Dragon Pokémon might be a reference to Leafy sea dragons.
Name origin
Horsea is derived from seahorse with reversed syllables, and a corruption of the diminutive horsie.
Tattu is a corruption of 竜 tatsu (dragon), which is part of the common name of a seahorse in Japanese: 竜の落し子 tatsu-no-otoshigo ("illegitimate child of a dragon").
In other languages
Language
Title
Meaning
Japanese
タッツー Tattu
From the Japanese term for seahorse, タツノオトシゴ/竜の落とし子
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.