Physically pulling a horse off another horses neck?

[fours2many]

Is it safe to do this? My one hose decided to hitch on another horses neck and head. The poor thing was gasping for breath. It was wiggling and turning and its gills were completely covered by the others tail. Is it safe to pry one pony off another?

Did this ever happen to anyone else? I wonder how many horses die and the owners think they may have got sick or something, only to never know they were sufficated by a sibliing.

I'll tell you, I was ready to panic. I grabbed some food and started to feed them. It finally left go and went to its feeding station. They both ate, so I am sure little snickers is fine, but wow! What a scare!!!

Kristin

[VWD]

I have had them do it , but have never had a problem with having one die or have to pull them apart, I think a healthy seahorse and pull it self free, maybe if you had a really young and small and had a older and larger it may be bad,

Glad everything is alright

[JustDavidP]

Leave em alone.. they are just doing what comes naturally. Hitching. If the "hitching post" becomes TOO distressed, it will go into a "roll" much like an alligator does a death roll. I've never had one die or suffer from gettin' too much lovin'

D

[fours2many]

Death roll, that is basically what it looked like. Scarey! He looks fine now though. I realize it is natural. how long can a seahorse go without breathing anyway?

Kristin

[JustDavidP]

he/she was breathing. Lookie at their snout/mouth. Even if you put a rubber band around the snout, the lil jaw will open and close. As far as the gills go, you'll probably note that most species (dunno all of the physical traits of every SH myself) have a concave set to them, and then flare at the gill plate/end. This makes it comfy for them to breathe when they squeeze in and around rock, weeds etc.

Albeit uncomfortable, I'm sure that it was more annoying than a health hazzard. You should see when my fry all hitch in a ball onto each other.. it's like a superball with tiny hairs coming off of it

And that death roll thingy...great defense mechanism.. they'll do this if a hermit crab gets to ornery with them and clings to their algae covered backs... or if a silly astrina starfish clings to them etc.

Dave

[fours2many]

Well David, I think my horses just got a little more serious than we thought. One male was wrapped around the other male(the loner of the group). This was for such a long time that the poor guy finally gave up and just laid there on the bottom. It couldn't even try and get a way anymore.

I did a search and found out that seahorses actually can have fights. They can get pretty bad too. I tried to let them go for an hour or so, but he just laid there with the other wrapped so tightly around it that it just couldn't move. He couldn't eat or anything. I finally intervened. I just held the one doing the squeezing and gently removed him. It was like he had velcro holding it to the other. Seriously it felt like taking velcro apart. Once apart, I thought the guy would just swim off, but it just laid there on the bottom, gasping for air. The other one kept comming over and I had to try and keep him away from the guy. I think he wanted to kill him. Very frightening. If seahorses could make real scary faces this one would have been scary. You could see the look of determination on him. I have them seperated now.

Kristin

[JustDavidP]

Argh...sounded ugly! This may be an episode of "Sygnathids Gone Wild"

D