New Seahorse

[novahobbies]

I shouldn't have. I know the risks. But, MAN. Just look at her!

Yes, she's wild caught. She's an H. erectus, about 3.5 inches long with her tail curled, and she's eating frozen brine..possibly more. I had the owner add some frozen mysis to the tank, and she was interested in it but it was too big for her (PE Mysis). So, I brought her home with some mini-mysis. She was on sale for $24.00....how could I say no???

Yes, I'm a bad man. But in my defense, I have a better shot of keeping her alive than many of the people in my area. I've got her in quarantine, with some spare live rock and extra caulerpa algae that I just harvested from the horse tank. She's busy hunting down amphipods right now, so we'll see how she handles the mini-mysis.
I'll be starting the de-worming dosing as soon as I get my prazipro in. Got my de-worming instructions from Ann, and I'm ready to go.
I know. I'm a bad man for buying a wild horse. I'll try and live with it.

 

[meowzer]

She's beautiful....and at this point the horse was already caught....Better YOU...A person who will care for her correctly then some novice just buying her cause she's cool. Not like you went out and caught her your self

Good luck with her

 

[novahobbies]

Thanks. I'm thawing a little sliver of a mini-mysis cube right now......

 

[teresaq]

Oh my god, she is beautiful. Glad you got the deworming instructions from ann. Wow, look at all the Ciri. They didnt have a little boy to go with her. ha
I know a guy that lives by lion country that breeds, and all his breeding stock is wild caught. He just deworms, and converts to frozen.
T

 

[novahobbies]

Negative on the frozen...yet. But this is day one, she ate some frozen brine and a few of my amphi's earlier, and I'm sure she stressed. There are more amphipods if she gets hungry again. She showed interest, just not enough to go all the way and snick them. I only wanted to add a few to gauge her interest.
Teresa, there's a funny story about this girl. I got her from a Ft. Lauderdale store, and the owner there said he had a whole bunch of horses with "spikes"

but someone had come by yesterday and bought them all. I was looking at the plain black H. erectus (might have been H. kelloggi...) and I was bummed about the cirri-covered horses that I had apparently just missed. Suddenly this one lone girl detached herself from a big feather duster that she was hiding behind and came up to the front of the glass. When Rob saw there was one more in there, he was shocked...apparently she had hidden herself pretty good yesterday, otherwise she would have been sold too. So, no; no little boys for her to play with. But if I deworm her, and she's fine alone for the next few months, will there be any problem with adding a couple tank-bred horses with her?
BTW I have my ice-probe in the QT tank. I want her to be as comfie as possible.

 

[teresaq]

ummm, not sure about adding captive bred. I am sure it can be done, but I would talk to Ann about it. You wouldnt want her lonely. Maybe the store you got her from will get some more like her in.
T

 

[shrimpy brains]

Wow! She is amazing! Good luck with her! I am sure she is better off with you than anyone else!
Congrats!!

 

[ann83]

Nova, I'm replying to your PM here, partly because I try to stick to the "keep the info on the public forums" philosophy, and also because I wanted to comment on other things as well.
Prazi-pro is fine for substitution in the "praziquantel" part of the instructions. They were written with prazi-pro in mind. I'm not sure which instructions you're seeing of mine, so just in case: 3 weeks of praziquantel (1 day a week x 2 meals), then 3 weeks of metronidazole (1 day a week x 2 meals), then 3 weeks of fenbendazole (1 day a week x 2 meals), the order doesn't matter, as long as each is done for 3 consecutive weeks. Prazi is gutloaded at 10mL in one gallon of water, metronidazole is gutloaded at 1 tablet or 1/4 tsp powder in one gallon of water, fenbendazole is gutloaded at 250mg (2mL) in one gallon of water. Gutload for 2 hours.
If 6-7 brine shrimp are the most she'll eat, then that's fine. 6-7 brine shrimp x 2 meals. But, don't gutload 30 brine shrimp and only feed 6-7; only gutload what she'll eat.
If you decide to add other seahorses to her tank, I would definitely go with captive bred and not more wild caught. I would also go with H. erectus to reduce the risk of bacterial infection from mixing species. And, of course, quarantine, quarantine, quarantine. Plus, all the extra helpful measures like frequent water changes, dropping the temperature to 68* for a while, and feeding out more live foods gutloaded with vitamins and immune boosters like beta glucan.

 

[novahobbies]

Originally Posted by ann83
Nova, I'm replying to your PM here, partly because I try to stick to the "keep the info on the public forums" philosophy, and also because I wanted to comment on other things as well.
Prazi-pro is fine for substitution in the "praziquantel" part of the instructions. They were written with prazi-pro in mind. I'm not sure which instructions you're seeing of mine, so just in case: 3 weeks of praziquantel (1 day a week x 2 meals), then 3 weeks of metronidazole (1 day a week x 2 meals), then 3 weeks of fenbendazole (1 day a week x 2 meals), the order doesn't matter, as long as each is done for 3 consecutive weeks. Prazi is gutloaded at 10mL in one gallon of water, metronidazole is gutloaded at 1 tablet or 1/4 tsp powder in one gallon of water, fenbendazole is gutloaded at 250mg (2mL) in one gallon of water. Gutload for 2 hours.
Perfect! These are the same directions I saw from your earlier post, but it's nice to see them reprinted, esp. for people who may have missed them.
For people who were wondering, I PM'd Ann to ask about the small quantity of brine shrimp my girl was eating per sitting right now.
Originally Posted by ann83
If you decide to add other seahorses to her tank, I would definitely go with captive bred and not more wild caught. I would also go with H. erectus to reduce the risk of bacterial infection from mixing species. And, of course, quarantine, quarantine, quarantine. Plus, all the extra helpful measures like frequent water changes, dropping the temperature to 68* for a while, and feeding out more live foods gutloaded with vitamins and immune boosters like beta glucan.
Thank you very much! I'm really happy to hear about the captive bred. If someone had said, "only wild caught from now on," I probably would have had to consider another seahorse tank! Besides, I still prefer captive bred enormously over wild.....all things considered. And yes, I'm a firm believer in QTing my horses. This girl will get her 9 weeks, and the eventually-planned other horses will get a full QT as well. Right now my QT tank is at 70 degrees with the ice probe chiller, but it's still creeping down. The 'probe kept my display tank, with full 130 watt lights over it, at 73 degrees. Maybe now is a good time to jury-rig a computer fan over the tank to see about an extra couple degrees pulldown. Thanks again!

 

[novahobbies]

Slight update. She ate about a dozen live brine tonight. And she's moving around the tank more, hopefully getting more comfotrable with her surroundings. I may feed her a small portion later tonight with a few thawed mysis mixed in, just to see how she does. She's still a lazy horse.....she doesn't really want to "go after" the brine. Just whatever swims in front of her snout is fine to her....

 

[novahobbies]

First batch of medicated food was taken well today. Turns out I didn't have to order anything; my LFS had prazipro in stock and even fenbendazole tablets for dogs (Barrier has a pooch section now for some reason). I reduced the prazipro to 2.5mL for a quart of seawater, marinated my live brine with the prazi and a teaspoon of live phyto for 2 hours, and she ate 10 shrimp before she got bored. I'll dose her one more time with the remaining medicated shrimp tonight.
I tried a mix of live brine and frozen mini-mysis this morning, but no luck yet. She occasionally takes frozen brine, but I guess the shape difference is whats throwing her off right now.

 

[bender77]

She is beautiful! Congrats!

 

[novahobbies]

Thanks! She's fine so far, but she still ignores frozen mysis. I don't mind right now, I'm ordering some enrichment for the live brine during the deworming period anyway. So far so good....

 

[shrimpy brains]

Glad she is doing well! *fingers crossed* That she will make the switch to frozen mysis for you!
Please, keep us updated! She is so awesome!

 

[novahobbies]

2nd week's dose of prazipro was taken well today. She's eating frozen brine without much issue, but she still prefers her food live. No takers on the mysis yet, except maybe one accidental snick of a mysis tail...but I can't even be sure of that. ;-) The QT tank is VERY hard to keep steady...been doing a lot of water changes and amquel doses. The QT biofilter had been soaking in my sump since forever, but it's just not keeping up with the load.
I haven't tried garlic or b12 soaked in the mysis yet. I wonder if that might help her make the switch. Should I try soaking a combination of brine and mysis in garlic first?

 

[teresaq]

you might also try giving her vit B12 - talk to Dan or Ann about it. Its suppose to increase appetite.

 

[novahobbies]

yeah, I will. I'm not even sure how useful it is to try and switch her to frozen right now. I have to feed her live at least one day a week, and I get the feeling that as long as live is available, she won't switch to the mysis.
She does take frozen brine, but you can tell she's a little reluctant about it. Like trying to get a kid to eat asparagus.

 

[ann83]

I don't know how well B12 will help with frozen training. Might not hurt though. You're probably right, you'll probably have better luck converting to frozen once deworming is over. Get her nice and fat and used to regular feeding, and then don't be afraid to hold back with the live and only feed frozen for a day or two to get her tempted to eat. You might have to go the live mysis > dead mysis > fresh frozen mysis > store bought frozen mysis route, if she isn't making the jump from ABS to mysis on her own.

 

[novahobbies]

Slight update: Seahorse is still doing fine, she'll be on her last dose of Fem. this week. I still have 3 weeks of Metron to do though.
Even though the seahorse is active and healthy-looking, she's lost most of her cirri. This was no surprise; I was warned that it would probably happen. It's been a PIA to keep the nitrates down in the QT tank, and I wonder if the increased nitrates is a contributing factor. Anyway, despite the loss of the cirri, her color is still a pale pinkish with some nice saddle markings, and she's enjoying her brine and ghost shrimp buffet daily.
In the meantime, there have been a few new additions to the tank - my LFS had some good memorial day sales, so I got some decent sized frags. New corals that got added include a pulsing xenia colony, some more bright green zoas, a single green ricordea, and a decent-sized colt coral frag. Also I finally got my frilly orange sponge mounted to a good spot in the tank. I figure I'll be ready to move her into her new home sometime after July 4th.

 

[shrimpy brains]

Fantastic! You are doing a great job with her. Too bad about the cirri, but I am sure she is still beautiful!
As Meowzer would say: where's the pictures??