Pregnant or not?!

Msieg

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Hello, hope you are all safe and well.
I purchased an erectus pair a while back and they are doing great. But I'm a little confused , the pair has been courting, and the male was frequently pumping his pouch to impress her I guess. Then after a couple days his pouch looks plump. It's been this way for about 14 days now. He still meets and dances with his girl, but no more pumping the pouch,
is less active and eats noticeably less then he used to. I've owned seahorses before, and know that they do become less active and eat less when they are carrying eggs. But in my previous seahorses I was always been able to tell by 2 weeks if they indeed were pregnant. This male, still looks plump but his pouch size hasn't increased in the past 2 weeks. I'm ruling gas out as he holds an upright position and swims just fine and he's in good spirits as far as behaviour,
So I'm having two thoughts, one that he may be carrying a very small brood and that's why it's not noticeable or second thought that he didn't fertilize the eggs after the female deposited them.
I am attaching a picture of what he looks like. I know it doesn't necessarily look like he's pregnant, but I've had the pair for about 3 months now, and before this his pouch was there but "deflated/ flatter" and he was frequently pumping while courting. Now he's not doing that anymore. In either case, what should I watch out for, anything I can do, especially if in fact the eggs were not fertilized by him? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated
20200408_163253.jpg
 

rayjay

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All the possibilities you mention are possible, but under normal conditions, after 14 days I would expect the pouch to be much fuller than it appears in your picture.
Not much else to be done other than to continue to observe.
 
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Msieg

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This is him this morning, he ate 2 mysis shrimp (pe mysis) and has just been hitching here and there.

20200412_091728.jpg
 

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