Wierd Pipefish behavior

[Paul B]

I find this very odd. I have a breeding pair of bluestripe pipefish for 4 or 5 years and there is no problem with them.
A month ago I added a pair of Janss Pipefish which are also doing fine. But yesterday I noticed my male pipefish is losing his tail and it is just ribs. He seems healthy otherwise, hunts and all but I have been noticing he is not hanging out with his mate much.


This morning I found out why.
One of the Janss pipefish, I assume the male chases the male blue stripe when ever he comes out to eat. The Janss pipefish will dart after him like a javelin from across the tank and chase him into the corner. I never noticed this before with two very different types of pipefish.
You can see the Janss here.



And the bluestripes.

 

[meherbas]

if i'm not mistaken they are part of the same family and aggression amongst males is common even to some extent even a lesser but still some agression amongst females.
My bluestripes use to fight with my banded pipefish ( i had to remove my bandeds) but never bothered my messmate pipefish.

 

[Paul B]

They must be very nearsighted because Janss Pipefish are like 4 times larger and different colors. But the little bluestripe gets right in the face of the Janss who doesn't have any sense of humor. The bluestripe turns to run and the Janss takes a bite out of his tail. Now I see why his tail looks like that.

 

[Paul B]

My male pipefish seems to have almost healed his tail. It was down to stumps as the much larger janss pipefish would chase him whenever he came out to do whatever pipefish do. That pair of bluestripe pipefish learned that they have to stay on the other end of the tank so now I have to feed them there. They are happy again and are doing their spawning dance that resembles the macarana.