mean bully seahorse???

[pinkpony]

hi all

i only noticed there was a problem because one of my ponys stopped eating.

they both used to happly feed from the net together but now the bully 'big yellow' as we call her physically blocks ebony whos alot smaller, from getting in the net to eat.

And if ebony persists in trying to eat Big yellow turns her head and gives her a filthy look to which ebony lowers her head looking sumissive, backs off, really its quite something to observe.

Also its become apperant big yellow is being 'mean' to the ebony in other ways, harrasing her off a number hitching posts, and sometimes intimidating her by shadowing her everywhere she goes.

Im even starting to wonder if big yellow had something to do with why Melody (The seahorse i posted alot about on here) stopped eating and i subsequently ended up having to euthanise.

Thankfully ive manged to get ebony to eat again (only off the sand bed though, is this bad for them snicking up sand or something?)

Any comments thoughts would be appreciated.

:thanks:

[Simon]

Hi Pink :)

Sorry cant remember your spec's (:o brains going)
How many ponys do you have, mixed or same gender?

Imo I dont think its anything to worry about to be honest, seahorses are not generally know to be aggressive however some seahorses are greedy buggers and just dont like sharing, whats your normal feeding regime, what do you feed, how much and how often?
As long as you can still feed the smaller one there shouldn't be any real problems, eating directly from the substrate is normal practise for alot of captive seahorses as many keepers feed them this way, it only becomes a problem if the substrate is too coarse as this can create the risk of weak-snick sometimes caused by larger particles getting stuck within the snout and damaging it.

Have you tried using a feeding trough with them? I use this method myself and it works well, also helps in keeping the bristle worm population under control at the same time,
perhaps you could implement two in different areas of the tank if the squabling continues.

HTH
Si

[jamesh]

can you put the food in two places and sort of usher each one to it or use a large bowl