Dear sir:
No, it is very unusual for the adults to cannibalize their young, so if you are not prepared to raise the babies, it’s best to net them out of the tank to avoid degrading your water quality when they begin to die off en masse.
However, a better alternative for you may be to disperse the newborns to other marine hobbyists or marine aquarium societies in your area who might be willing to try their luck raising the babies.
Ocean Rider allows hobbyists to freely disburse their fry up until they reach the age of 30 days. If they are overburdened with a baby boom, the best bet for most hobbyists is to adopt the newborns out to surrogate parents who live within driving distance. Of course, this works best if they have a friend or neighbor or know a fish guy down at your LFS who are interested in rearing and can take the excess fry off your hands. It is more difficult to ship seahorse fry to interested parties long distance and the newborns often don’t tolerate long-distance shipping well.
But for the hobbyist whose only other recourse is to euthanize the fry and sacrifice the entire brood, shipping newborn fry overnight is still preferable to the alternative.
Another good option for hobbyists who do not want to be burdened by a baby boom would be to prevent your ponies from breeding by manipulating the environmental cues, especially be photoperiod or length of time that you keep the lights on each day. Let me know if you would like more information on how to discourage your seahorses from breeding and producing unwanted broods of babies.
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support
Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
