female dominance

[choriona]

I was wondering if anyone else has seen this...
I have a male and female living together and she totally bosses him around. It was his house first, as he grew up in it. I purchased her already full grown and she moved in with him. They live together in a 20Gal aquarium and have 4 hide spots around the heat source and 2 away from it. I've created levels that they can explore.
When feeding time rolls around, my female eats first and the male almost looks uninterested (until I hold some food right in front of his face). Its not like he dosent try, he just dosent seem to care.
She also protects him when I go into the cage for whatever reason. She'll stand in front of him, in between me and him. It's kinda cute, I think.
I was just curious if this was a motherly thing, or a "i'm bigger than him" thing. (She's not really, they are equal in size and girth.)

[Wuntu Menny]

Our female is certainly wearing the pants in her enclosure. We only keep 1.1, but she runs the show. She always eats first and will attack the male if he gets anything before she's full. She is only 2/3 his size, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for her.

We suspect she may have been a hot female as it took some time for her to produce eggs due to her resistance and aggression toward the male. The enclosure was all his for years before we aquired her as a juvie. After fattening her up for a few months, we introduced the pair in a freshly landscaped cage. The female immediately assumed a dominant role and its been that way ever since. They seem to have found a balance as there's only been one instance of them injuring each other.

WM

[Samba]

I can identify with these senarios. I had a 'hot' female that was just this way. She and the male got along great, but she definately dominated the food, and the hide if she wanted. I think females housed with males are more inclined to be aggressive as a defense strategy... but you never know. Some of women are just born to boss! =)