Quote:
Originally Posted by
novahobbies http:///t/387854/i-got-the-bug/340#post_3496830
OK, I have a couple thoughts here....
First of all, can you run a piece of rigid tubing down that side of the tank into that bottom corner? Those areas look like they would behave like the back corners of my column tank....typically low-flow and possibly very low-oxygen areas of the tank. If a seahorse chooses a place like that at night, they might not have the sense to move to a more oxygen-rich part of the tank. They would literally just drift off to sleep....for good. I think if this was my tank I would start by adding two bubblers, one on either side in each rear corner, to encourage some water flow in those areas.
I also admit I am worried about that eaten horse you mentioned. What do you think would have reduced a seahorse to a near-skeleton (I'm assuming this was a more or less overnight event)? Even bristle worms would have had a hard time doing that in one night. As much as I am a fan of the foam aquascaping (obviously....) it does have one potential drawback. If a large predatory worm gets into our tank from, say, a piece of coral-encrusted live rock, it would have a grand old time burrowing in the foam of our 'scaping. Might make it very hard to ever find, in fact. I don't know about yours, but my horse tank has a very healthy population of bristles...some very large....that come out of the foam columns during dinner time. I suck them up with the siphon whenever I find them during water changes, but....there are nastier polychaetes that sometimes come in on our rocks than the generally benign bristle worm.
Just something to think about. Since one died with no obvious trauma, I'm more inclined to look at the O2 level first, but I just wanted you to have the possible predator idea in the back of your head. Might be worth checking out late at night with a red flashlight.
Finally. Look at the horse in your last pic. Is it just the flash or reflection.....or is there a snout rot thing going on there? Looks white, compared to the rest of the horse in the the picture.
Thanks for the insight! I will get the rigid tubing tomorrow. After what you said, I think the bottom portion of the tank would benefit from more flow.
Here is what happened I fed the horses around 11:30 Friday night. All were accounted for and eating. They were pretty active as well. Saturday I had some things going on and did not even turn the light on or look at the tank. I know I am a bad owner.
Around 12 AM I decide to turn the lights on and wait an hour or so to feed the horses. An hour later I feed the horses and discover the dead one. The dead one's head and body was in tact but not the pouch area it was gone and in that area you could see the skeleton. The tank does not have any corals. I had a rock that I dipped in hypersalinity for an hour. I did have a leather coral that had leather eating nudibranches but that came on a frag plug. Hitchhikers may have come in with my macros. I will keep an eye out.
The horse in my last pic is my original female. She likes to change from a light gray to black. She does this gradually. I checked her snout and to me it looks perfect. It is lighter than her face. I will take more pics to get your opinion. She is also my "happy snicker". She snicks her food quite loudly and attacks the feeding tube like crazy. I sure hope its not snout rot.
I have smilies. I am going to try and get video tonight. 
