Seahorse monagamy?

[rmerrill]

I've always heard that seahorses were monagamous. Recently, however, I read that was a 'myth' although some breeds may indeed be monogamous.

I have been raising Reidi for a few years and had 2 breeding pairs (babies every 14 days). I accidently sold what I thought was a mated pair but apparently broke up a mated pair and have no births in over a year. Based on my experience, therefore, I believe Reidi do mate for life. Anyone else have any experience?

Fortunately I had some jueveniles that I believe will eventually start breeding.

 

[TamiW]

The first thing to remember is that monogamous doesn't mean "mate for life" it means "having a single partner for a time period". That is sort of how this myth got started. Sort of.

But no, most seahorses aren't monogamous in the mate-for-life kind of way. And those that are have shown they will quickly find a new mate if their original partner is lost.

I wrote quite extensively about it here:
http://www.fusedjaw.com/biology/seahorse-monogamy/

I reviewed the literature that was available on seahorses and there really wasn't any evidence at the time for the "mate for life" mythology.

Since that time, there have been two papers published that add to that data.
D. Harasti, K. Martin-Smith and W. Gladstone (2012) Population dynamics and life history of a geographically restricted seahorse, Hippocampus whitei- Journal of Fish Biology 81, 1297"“1314
and
Woodall, L.C., H.J. Koldewey and P.W. Shaw. (2011) Serial monogamy in the European long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus. Conservation Genetics. 12(6):1645-1649.

The first paper shows that there are in fact H. whitei that pair bond over multiple breeding seasons. Which I was actually surprised as heck to hear. The second shows H. guttulatus, which is monogamous in season, but not over multiple seasons.

Whew, now all that being said, we don't have any data on H. reidi in the wild (that I am aware). But in all cases where seahorse mating habits have been studied, if their mate is lost, they will re-pair with another mate, usually fairly quickly. I would look at other factors for why they aren't breeding.