Crap. Ammonia!

novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
I noticed my female H. reidi had gone off her food tonight for the second night in a row. She's pretty lethargic - just sitting on her favorite hitch and not moving. I just recently did a major 40% water change and scrubbed the LR in this tank, so I thought the water quality should be great.....right?
Nyet! I've got a reading of .25 on my ammonia, and 20ppm on my nitrates.
I guess I moved the rock around too much and musthave stirred up something when I did the tank cleaning. I scrubbed the LR in the old tankwater, so I know I didn't have anything to create a major die-off, but obviously SOMEthing died.
I'm hoping she's just off her food because the water paframs are hinky. The male is still fine, eating like a champ and buzzing around the water current. I'm going to try some live brine and live ghost shrimp tomorrow afternoon, along with a water change. FOr tonight I have to amquel it and say a little prayer.....hope she's OK in the morning!
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
do you have an extra air pump? maybe add that, and when mine got hit with ammonia, I was instructed to do a meth blue dip. It helped sooth the ammonia burn
T
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
I'd already added a spare airline last night. I don't have any meth blue on hand, but I'm getting it this afternoon. As of this morning, she was still in her hitch. She's breathing normally, but that's all she's doing.....
Wish I could have taken the morning off to take care of her! Somehow I don't think my boss would have taken "I have a sick seahorse" as an excuse.
It SHOULD be, though.... :(
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Well, I arrived home today with an armload of supplies: live brine, live ghost shrimp, a new test kit, and methyline blue.
Sadly, she'd passed on during the day.

Now my male is wandering around the tank, probably wanting to know what I did with his girlfriend.
Here's the kicker. I retested the water with the new ammonia test (the old one I had was OLD) and it barely registered any amm at all. much less than the .25 reading I got on last night's old chemicals. So....WTF? I've heard that horses will soemtimes go off their food out of boredom, but I don't think she would really have starved herself to death. There must have been an internal issue that I wasn't aware of.
She showed no signs of GBD, no signs of egg binding (which is pretty rare anyway), and of course no external injuries. Before she went off her food, her snick was loud and healthy-looking. I never saw any signs of weak-snick. Trouble is, with these kinds of things, internal issues are really hard to tell. It's like looking at a human and going "OK, well, he's fit, looks healthy, clear-eyed, and active....he must be completely healthy!!" and yet you're never seeing the malignant tumor in his brain.
Anyway, I'm babbling. Now I'm left with a decision.....should I get another H. reidi for this lonely boy, or should I leave him alone and consider another species down the road? I'd have to find him a suitable home if I did that...I'm not willing to sell him back to the LFS. Either way I think I'm going to wait a few weeks and make sure he doesn't have the same mystery disease. Gonna go water change tonight.....
Bummin' hard, man....
 
ann83

ann83

Member
Originally Posted by novahobbies
http:///forum/post/3105911
I've heard that horses will soemtimes go off their food out of boredom, but I don't think she would really have starved herself to death.
Not likely. Definitely wouldn't get so "bored" that they would pass up food they've taken all their lives in favor of starving.
Most likely, when people are suggesting that seahorses go off food out of boredom, that is their own personal guess of what is happening. And, its anthropomorphizing! More than likely, there is an underlying condition the owners aren't seeing. The seahorse isn't bored, it is sick, or it is stressed by new tankmates or a low pH, high temperature, out of whack parameters, etc. or, there is something wrong with the food. It sat in the freezer too long, it was thawed and re-frozen, its a different brand, different type, different size.
Sometimes the first symptom of a bacterial infection is death. I'd drop the temperature a degree or two and keep a close eye on the boy. If he stops eating, pull him immediately to a hospital tank.
 
S

shrimpy brains

Guest
So sorry about your baby!
Hope your boy stays well!
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
I'm so sorry for your loss also......Not to sound cold...so please do not take it this way....BUT at least it was quick :(
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by ann83
http:///forum/post/3105973
Sometimes the first symptom of a bacterial infection is death. I'd drop the temperature a degree or two and keep a close eye on the boy. If he stops eating, pull him immediately to a hospital tank.

This is pretty much what I've arrived at also. She's the one who was treated for a bacterial infection about 3 months ago (I think...could be 4..) with furan-2. She pulled through that, but again -- she showed signs of infection where the male never seemed to catch it. She pulled through that just fine with treatment. Bacterial infections, as you say, don't always make themselves so obviously known however. Without having a pathologist look at the horse I'll never really know.
I've had these guys for....about a year and a half now. Way too soon for a horse to go belly-up. But I also know how fast bacterial infections can spread through their bodies, and how quickly their health can deteriorate.
In the meantime, I've got a fan blowing on the tank to help cool the water a couple degrees more, and the male is happily going after the live groceries I'd brought home. I'll be keepiing a close eye on him, for sure.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
BTW todays readings are:
Amm < 0.25 (not 0, but far less than the old test was reading. Some trace amm. only)
pH: 8.2
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20
Water temp 76
I don't know the dKh right now, I still have to go test.
If she was immunocompromised from her previous illness, and my rock-rearrangement caused an ammonia spike, I wonder if that combination would have done it.
 
darthtang aw

darthtang aw

Active Member
Do you know the rough age of the horses? while a year and a half is noty that long if they were older to begin with the timeline would be right. Most horses from birth to death only do about 5 years in an aquarium before passing on. It is possible if she was older it was just that time....
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Hiya Darthtang!
Well, these are ORA H. reidis that were fairly large....in fact they were larger than any tank-bred horses I've seen. Seems like in order to meet the demand for captive bred animals, breeders are selling them at a younger age these days....but I digress...
It MIGHT have been age, but I've read of reidis living 6+years in captivity, so I'm more inclined to think it was something else. As for the rock, I have 3 rocks in one corner that stubbornly persist in growing bryopsis algae no matter how I try to keep my trates down. I took those three out to scrub, then decided to scrub down a couple more rocks that looked like they might be getting a few bryopsis runners on them from nearby.
Thanks for all the well-wishes, everyone. It's a bummer, but sometimes I know it happens and there's not a darned thing we can do about it.
 
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