novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Lost the second one last Friday. Just haven't been in the mood to post it, but I thought I should put it out there. The male, unlike the female, was acting perfectly fine right up until he passed....swimming around the tank, eating like a pig...I had no idea he was sick too, but apparently he was. Left for work Friday morning, he greeted me at the tank. Came back from work, and he was gone.
I'm thinking I stirred up...something....when I rearranged the rockwork. I recorded a bried ammonia spike, and perhaps there was some pathogen dormant in the sand or rock that was able to gain a foothold if the seahorses were weakened by the ammonia. It wasn't a large spike, but I don't know what else could have caused it.
After a year and a half of seeing these guys dancing around this tank, I'm pretty bummed at the sight of their empty home right now. I think I learned a hard lesson here...one that might have been avoided if I wasn't so careless by removing the rock and messing with it. If the ammonia spike caused any bacteria to gain a foothold then the fault lies directly with me.
On the other hand, a voice in the back of my head reminds me that I can't control EVERYthing that goes on in the tank...and that internal infections like this are almost impossible to detect and treat in time. My female lived through a vibrio infection with treatment, and survived a few more months before she was taken. Also, 18 months isn't so bad when I consider the possibility that these guys were older than usual (certianly larger, at least) when I purchased them. I'll never really know how old they were.
So, what's next? I don't know. I'm going to throw away every bit of live rock and sand that was in this tank, and disinfect the glass itself before I start it up again. I have some small background in microbiology, and I'm aware of how persistent bacteria can be....it can encyst, spore..you name it...and come back months later even from a dry tank to reproduce in the right environment. With that in mind, I think everything "live" from the tank has gotta go.
I think I'm going to give it another go, but I'm tempted to wait a while and change a few things around a little before I do. I'm toying with changing the filtration to that Subcurrent internal wet/dry filter, or a good cannister filter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use a HOB fuge as well....I want a place to make a small DSB and pod fuge, because I want to put a Mandarin back in this tank again as well. The rock and the sand are going to be almost completely virgin...the rock will be a tufa sculpture and I might get a couple pieces of live rock to seed it. Likewise, I'll start with mostly dry sand and just a handfull of live to get it going. We'll see.
In the meantime....RIP, guys. I'm really sorry to see ya go..... :-(
I'm thinking I stirred up...something....when I rearranged the rockwork. I recorded a bried ammonia spike, and perhaps there was some pathogen dormant in the sand or rock that was able to gain a foothold if the seahorses were weakened by the ammonia. It wasn't a large spike, but I don't know what else could have caused it.
After a year and a half of seeing these guys dancing around this tank, I'm pretty bummed at the sight of their empty home right now. I think I learned a hard lesson here...one that might have been avoided if I wasn't so careless by removing the rock and messing with it. If the ammonia spike caused any bacteria to gain a foothold then the fault lies directly with me.
On the other hand, a voice in the back of my head reminds me that I can't control EVERYthing that goes on in the tank...and that internal infections like this are almost impossible to detect and treat in time. My female lived through a vibrio infection with treatment, and survived a few more months before she was taken. Also, 18 months isn't so bad when I consider the possibility that these guys were older than usual (certianly larger, at least) when I purchased them. I'll never really know how old they were.
So, what's next? I don't know. I'm going to throw away every bit of live rock and sand that was in this tank, and disinfect the glass itself before I start it up again. I have some small background in microbiology, and I'm aware of how persistent bacteria can be....it can encyst, spore..you name it...and come back months later even from a dry tank to reproduce in the right environment. With that in mind, I think everything "live" from the tank has gotta go.
I think I'm going to give it another go, but I'm tempted to wait a while and change a few things around a little before I do. I'm toying with changing the filtration to that Subcurrent internal wet/dry filter, or a good cannister filter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use a HOB fuge as well....I want a place to make a small DSB and pod fuge, because I want to put a Mandarin back in this tank again as well. The rock and the sand are going to be almost completely virgin...the rock will be a tufa sculpture and I might get a couple pieces of live rock to seed it. Likewise, I'll start with mostly dry sand and just a handfull of live to get it going. We'll see.
In the meantime....RIP, guys. I'm really sorry to see ya go..... :-(
