Dancing females?

[April F]

I have 2 young female seahorses (still unsure of exact species yet, but believe they may be kuda) who have been having a grand old time dancing around together in a mating dance. (and yes, I am sure they are both females.)

They go thru the whole display, from color changes, to shimmying, to grabbing tails and rising to the surface - the whole works. They are not the only ponies in the tank, but I don't have any males (on purpose - tried the raising thing, don't feel like attempting that endeavor again at this point).

I've had lots of horses, different ages and different species, and never had 2 females so fond of each other. I almost feel bad for not getting them a mate, but I really don't want to deal with all those babies. Is this uncharacteristic behavior? Should I get them a mate and just not worry about the babies? I fear some type of egg bound problem, but don't know if that happens in seahorses.

A little background - these are very possibly sisters. I know they are well under a year old, by the size I got them and how much they have grown. I believe they are CB kuda. They eat frozen mysis by the handful (not literally, but I've never had such active eaters). They are very attached to one another, and never more than a few inches apart, even when not dancing. The tank is a 58 tall (18x21x36) and is really a very new tank, having only been up for about 6 weeks now. They have just started this mating ritual within the past week.

Is there any reason I should be concerned about them NOT having a male mate?

 

[JennyL]

Hi April,
Single sex tanks work fine. Seahorses are very social creatures and what you are observing is quite normal. It's not courting as we see with male and female but more of the normal greeting and socializing with each other.
No need to worry, just sit back and enjoy the interaction.

 

[DanU]

I agree that the seahorses will do fine as they are and there is no worry having the same sex. Your description though sounds more like males than females. Shimmying, color changes, tail grabbing is more pronounced in males than females. It could be that you have males that haven't developed yet or females that may change to male. Keep a close eye for pouch development.

Dan

 

[April F]

I knew that some fish would change sex, but I had never heard of seahorses doing it. Is this a common occurrence?

If I were a betting person, I would bet a million to 1 that these are both females. There are no signs of a pouch on either of them, and they actually do look like they might be full of eggs, hence my eggbound thoughts. I've not seen any eggs deposited on the sand tho, and they are such good eaters that they are fat all the time.

I truly hope they both stay female, but I guess if nature takes its course, I can just deal with that if it happens.

 

[DanU]

No it is not common as far as we know but it does happen. I haven't found any publish papers or any mention in literature on it. Labdoc on the org did a necropsy on an egg bound female that developed a pouch. The horse had both male and female organs. We have seen several instances of females turning to male. Several reports from customers. I am not referring to poorly identified juvenile males but rather seahorses that have either spawned already or were well over 1 year old. We had a brood stock system that turned all male. We replaced 1/2 the males with females a couple of times but it kept turning all male. We ended up taking down the system and sterilizing it and restarted it with new stock and had no further issue. We have also had customers that have had broods that turned almost all male. Sometimes several times in a row. The odds of this happening with a brood of a few hundred are pretty slim without some type of trigger causing them to turn males. We don't know what the trigger is.

From what we have seen and has been reported to us, this seems to come suddenly. Pouch develop is rapid. It seems like only a couple of days but this could be because they weren't be scrutinized during development and only noticed once there was a pouch.

I hope they stay female for you since that is what you prefer.

Dan

 

[April F]

I will keep a very close eye on them, and watch for any pouch development. Hopefully, if they do change, they will both do it. I don't mind males over females - I have always thought they were more personable - I just don't want the babies. If both were male, that still wouldn't be an issue, as the other horse in the tank is a different species and still very young.

That's very interesting about entire broods turning male. Possibly temperature or light cycle triggered? I think the local wholesaler has figured it out tho - I haven't seen anything but females around here in years!