A role for daily greetings in maintaining seahorse pair bonds

In an aquarium, a female seahorse was presented with a choice of mates: her previous mate to whom she had just transferred her eggs and who was placed in a separate aquarium or new mates in the same aquarium with whom she socially interacted and greeted on a daily basis. In 6 experiments, the female mated with the new male as opposed to the previous, impregnated mate. To insure that the previous mate was not handicapped, the trial was prolonged and all seahorses were left together in the tank; the female did not approach the previous mate. Even after birth, she preferred the new mate. Findings suggest that daily contact and greeting in the tank took precedence over previous mating.

Vincent, A.C.J. (1995). A role for daily greetings in maintaining seahorse pair bonds. Animal Behaviour 49:258-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(95)80178-2