55g Seahorse Tank

[rykna]

Originally Posted by zeke92
oh, about the polyp, like i said on earlier posts, the polyp is ON the horse. And i don't feel comfortable boiling seahorse for dinner

the polyp is so small and stuff and it barely comes out eiuther. but the tentacles, small ones, NOT like anemone tentacles, like polyp ones. there kinda feathery. the polyp is pure white too. and i don't know what to do about a tiny polyp that barely opens up on a small horse. the horse doens't seem to be bothered by it, it never tries to pick at it and doesn't seem to be hurt when the polyp has opened.
Hmm...sounds like a little mini feather duster...it was purely chance that it has attached itself to the horse, but with a pic it's hard to say exactly what it is.
When you say polyp...do you mean that it looks like a zoo polyp? Or does it have a tube that it hides in?

 

[zeke92]

no, not a tubeworm, it looks like a zoo polyp sorta. it's pure white and it's stem is sorta brownish.
my dad still doesn't have a new camera, and thre best picture i could take with that is no flash, it is shutting off when you use flash now

so it would be blurry enough with fash, but even worse without flash. so imagine a horse with a white blurry blob and thats what the pic would look like

soryr i can't get a pic. should i just let the horse deal with it or see what happens? it doesn't seem to be bothering it atleast..
thanks for all the help everyone.

 

[rykna]

Does it look like these???
Purple Colony Polyps

 

[rykna]

Hi,
I got some second opinions, and I think simplest and least stressful way to try and remove the little polyp is to give your horse a "fresh water dip". I gave my Kuda a fw dip to get rid of some pests, worked like a charm. The little fiends dropped off in seconds.
I don't know if you've ever given a fresh water dip to a marine fish, so here's the basic steps I follow:
~Use a container large enough to allow the horse to fully stretch out.
~Use dechlorinated water that is approximately the same temperature and pH of the marine aquarium's water.
~Put your horse in for 3-5 minutes
Keep a close eye on your seahorse. As soon as it starts showing a distress (on a range of 0-5) level of 3, put the seahorse back into the DT.
The critter should drop of the seahorse with in the first minute. I'd keep the "critter" in a separate cup of sw after the fw dip is done and see if you can get a good picture of it so we can identify it.

 

[zeke92]

ok, i'll probably try that tomorrow. will the freshwater just make the critter drop off because of the water bothering it or will it kill it? cause it looks really neat

either way i will definatly do freshwater dip tomorrow. would a bucket work? that would be the easiest thing i could do without taking the sehaorse to a different building and driving him to the garage, or taking a 5 gallon from the garage and cleaning it out.
the hroses are still young and small and lots of room for one that size in the bucket.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by zeke92
ok, i'll probably try that tomorrow. will the freshwater just make the critter drop off because of the water bothering it or will it kill it? cause it looks really neat

either way i will definatly do freshwater dip tomorrow. would a bucket work? that would be the easiest thing i could do without taking the sehaorse to a different building and driving him to the garage, or taking a 5 gallon from the garage and cleaning it out.
the hroses are still young and small and lots of room for one that size in the bucket.
All you need is a small container. No more that a gallon. You don't need to drive the horse any where...just pull the little guy out of the tank and put him in the small container with fresh water for 4-8 minutes.
The fresh water dip will have the same effect when you dip LR in fw to chase out any unwanted pests. The little critter will cry: "Abandon Seahorse! Water conditions are terrible, must escape!!!"
What ever you decide to do with the critter, please take a good picture of it so we can make a positive ID. I'd hate to find out that is was an aiptasia latter on when you post a thread called:"HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLP AIPTASIA INVASION!!!!"
Good Luck

Rykna

 

[zeke92]

well i know for sure it's not aiptasia. i've had aiptasia before in my 10 gal and this isn't one. but i will try to get a good pic, maby borrow my sisters camera sometime.
hopefully it's someting harmless or some neat type of coral that i can put in the 18 gal reef i'm workin on

 

[rykna]

I hope so. Does it look anything like the picture I posted?

 

[zeke92]

not really. the middle isn't so fat and it's tentacles are a little longer.
it's tentacles are a tad long but not long like aitasia. and it's stem is sorta longish but not as long as aiptasia. and it's tentacles are feathery like when i look real close. the polyp is PURE white and it's stem is brownish. i have no idea what this is, i've not seen anything like it.

 

[rykna]

What about this?
a starburst polyp

 

[zeke92]

hmm, a little bit closer but not as long. but that definatly may be a candidate, just a young one. i was looking at pics online, i just can't find anything like it.

 

[zeke92]

did a big water change today because there is a slight brown slime algae problem and if it's something in the water i thought maby a water change would help a tad. i was also using that water to fill my new 18 gal so i wouldn't have to cycle it with new water. my second bucket of siphoning, i put the big end of the siphon in the water and somehow it automatically started siphoning, and i went to put the other end in the bucket to start a siphon and a bunch of water strated coming out on my pants....i could just SEE both seahorses' little faces laughing at me. both of them were right there when it happened at that corner of the tank and i just new they were probably cracking up...

 

[zeke92]

i looked at both horses to see wich one needed the freshwater dip...and i don't see the polyp. either it's completely closed up as far as it possibly could be, or it's off. should i go ahead and FW dip both of them...or just wait and see if the polyp shows up sometime and then FW dip that one?

 

[zeke92]

one of my seahorses sides is turning yellowish. why is it turning yellow? i'm gonna test water right now and i'll post this on the emergency fish thing probably to get more help, but what is going on? it's late and i just noticed his whole side is yellowish!!

 

[zeke92]

i don't know if it's becoming yellow or if the outer layer of skin is becoming transparent. it's hard to tell tho. from an angle it looks black but from the side it looks yellowish.

 

[rykna]

Seahorses can change colors. They do it for all sorts of reasons. Excitement, stress, ect. Light colors on a dark horse usually means stress, but with out pics it's hard to say. My Black Kuda would flash all sorts of colors when it was dinner time.

 

[zeke92]

well i think it may have been stress then cause i did a water change and i noticed when i tested the water that the salinity was like 1.025 instead of 1.024. i changed it last night and he seems fine now. he wasn't acting sick or anything just yellowish. i was just worried i did something wrong already.

 

[new2salt1]

1.024 to 1.025 will not cause a seahorse to change colors.
And at the beginning of the thread, you were adding fish to an uncycled tank.
You should probably get some advice on how to properly start a tank.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by zeke92
well i think it may have been stress then cause i did a water change and i noticed when i tested the water that the salinity was like 1.025 instead of 1.024. i changed it last night and he seems fine now. he wasn't acting sick or anything just yellowish. i was just worried i did something wrong already.
No problem

Seahorses, at least the ones I have, love water changing days. Seahorses are very curious and love to investigate. Color fluctuations are normal with seahorses. Most reflect their moods. A -0.001 drop in salinity wouldn't cause any problems. Most likely your horse was excited about all the activity. Mine love to come over and get right in the middle of what ever I'm doing in the tank.

 

[zeke92]

that would explain why they wouldn't get out of the way last night when i was trying to move one of my small kenya tree's to a new spot, lol. they kept swimming around my arm and getting right up near where i was moving stuff around.
there so cute, curious, interesting little creatures. spending a year of just waiting and reading was worth getting these for sure.
and new2salt1, where did i ever say i was ever adding fish to an uncycled tank? i'm not an idiot.....