Possibly sick seahorse. Need advice

hippoiathanatoi

New Member
Hi,
I purchased two emperor seahorses (male and female) approximately 3 weeks ago. I have been cycling a 50L tank for approx 3 months, have an Eheim filter and Miniskim protein filter. Temp is 25deg and salinity is perfect. Nitrate and ammonia are at 0 and I have 2 acro gobies in the tank with them. When I first got the seahorses they were swimming around and looked happy but over the past few days the female has lost her bright yellow colour and gone to a faded brown and is hanging upside down a lot or sitting on the bottom of the tank a lot more. She was much more active than the male for the first few weeks and they seemed happy together in the tank, swimming around together and playing. I have been feeding them a mixed diet of live feed and frozen Mysis shrimp. Is there somethibg else I should be dojng to keep her healthy. Does anyone have any ideas about whats wrong with her?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by hippoiathanatoi http:///t/396146/possibly-sick-seahorse-need-advice#post_3528875
Hi,
I purchased two emperor seahorses (male and female) approximately 3 weeks ago. I have been cycling a 50L tank for approx 3 months, have an Eheim filter and Miniskim protein filter. Temp is 25deg and salinity is perfect. Nitrate and ammonia are at 0 and I have 2 acro gobies in the tank with them. When I first got the seahorses they were swimming around and looked happy but over the past few days the female has lost her bright yellow colour and gone to a faded brown and is hanging upside down a lot or sitting on the bottom of the tank a lot more. She was much more active than the male for the first few weeks and they seemed happy together in the tank, swimming around together and playing. I have been feeding them a mixed diet of live feed and frozen Mysis shrimp. Is there somethibg else I should be dojng to keep her healthy. Does anyone have any ideas about whats wrong with her?
Hi,
Welcome to the site!
25 degrees??? 74 degrees is the right temp for tropical seahorses, my cold water Potbelly horses have a cool 65 degrees, but 25... no way. As for color, seahorses change their color to match environment, or mood..so losing color and turning faded brown does not mean anything is wrong. They also need lots of hitching posts to be happy.
Decorative Macroalgae will help keep the nasty's out of the water. Go to "Golf Coast Ecosystems" and look into getting some Boitryocladia or Caulerpa Prolifera . Seahorses really love this stuff to play in and grab onto, it will also add oxygen and as you remove the over growth you will export the phosphates, nitrates and such out of the water, keeping it pristine, which seahorses need. Also a couple of air lines (no stone) will help to have better gas exchange, and they like to play in the bubbles.
 

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///t/396146/possibly-sick-seahorse-need-advice#post_3528884
Hi,
Welcome to the site!
25 degrees??? I'M going to take a wild guess Flower and say this is a celsius temperature 74 degrees is the right temp for tropical seahorses, my cold water Potbelly horses have a cool 65 degrees, but 25... no way. As for color, seahorses change their color to match environment, or mood..so losing color and turning faded brown does not mean anything is wrong. They also need lots of hitching posts to be happy.
Decorative Macroalgae will help keep the nasty's out of the water. Go to "Golf Coast Ecosystems" and look into getting some Boitryocladia or Caulerpa Prolifera . Seahorses really love this stuff to play in and grab onto, it will also add oxygen and as you remove the over growth you will export the phosphates, nitrates and such out of the water, keeping it pristine, which seahorses need. Also a couple of air lines (no stone) will help to have better gas exchange, and they like to play in the bubbles.
LOL....read above :)
 
S

saxman

Guest
Definitely 25*C...which is indeed warm, even for tropical species (77*F). SH are very prone to bacterial infections, which is why they're best kept below 75*F (slightly less than 24*C), but even a bit lower is fine.
My my first question is which species do you actually have? "Emperor" SH are GENERALLY H. procerus, altho I've also seen H. kuda called "Emperors" or "Asian Emperors". If you actually have H. procerus, I suspect you're living in Australia or the UK, as they're generally available in those countries, but they could just as easily be H. kuda.
Do your SH seem to be having buoyancy problems (either positive or negative buoyancy)?
Do you see any lesions anywhere (the tail is often the site of these)?
Are they off their feed?
Are there any stinging corals, 'nems, etc. in the tank (pretty much anything with sweepers)?
Have they mated? The male's pouch will look "full" and will grow larger. Pregnant males will often hide while they're holding a brood of eggs.
As Flower mentioned, do they have places to hitch to while resting?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
LOL...Meowzer...
...I had things backwards (story of my life) but I was right that temp was off.
 

hippoiathanatoi

New Member
I have no idea what breed they are. I live in Australia and the tank I got them from just said "Emperor Seahorses". I'll post some photos on here though (Photo is from a few weeks ago before her colour faded).
I did mean 25 degrees celsius. The people at the aquarium I bought them from told me to keep the temp between 24 and 26 deg celsius. I'll try lowering it a little and see how she goes.
I can't see any spots/lesions or anything that looks unhealthy on her yet, but I'll keep an eye on her over the next week. I also have no stinging corals in the tank. I have a plastic plant with lots of wavy/spindly arm bits coming off of it and have live seaweed draped over it so that they have something to hang on to. I'll definitely look into the decorative macro algae though.
The male looks to be pregnant and his pouch is getting bigger. He seems pretty happy though. It was just the female I was a bit worried about, though she is starting to look a bit livelier now.
Also, if the male has babies, do they usually survive? Has anyone had a pregnant seahorse before? Any advice on that front? Will the Acro gobies eat the baby seahorses? I honestly didn't expect them to get pregnant as I read that they only bread in larger tanks but he is slowly growing larger and hiding a bit more now.
Thanks for all of the advice. I might just be being paranoid but I'd prefer to be on the safe side with them. They are such beautiful creatures.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
They are beautiful! Looks like my Kuda seahorses. Just hanging around is what they do, and if the male is pregnant, she has nobody to frolic with, being frisky is the only time mine were very active...
To save the babies requires lots of commitment, a ready set up tank, filters and such. Live copepods, and new hatched baby brine shrimp for food... I never did it, but always wanted to. I hated watching them just die, and even got a 15g tank to try, but again...didn't do it. If they are born right in the display they won't make it.
 
S

saxman

Guest
Pretty SH for sure...and you do indeed have procs (H. procerus). Altho they are very closely related to H. whitei, they aren't temperate SH (think Northern vs. Southern erectus), and DNA studies have shown that they are indeed a different species. I'd keep them at 70*F - 74*F, personally.
If they've bred, they often do act a bit shy, esp. the males, so that may be all you're seeing. Males will also inflate and deflate their pouches with water to display for the females, so you may see this as well (they can fool you sometimes).
As breeding, with SH, where there's a will, there's a way. We've had them breed in 10 QT's.
Rearing fry is something you have to want to do, but it's definitely interesting. You will, however, need to set up a nursery tank (10 gal with sponge filter is fine) with some hitches (IIRC procs do hitch at birth). For hitches, we've used "plastic canvas" pieces with weights on the bottom. The small-size zipties also work well for hitches. You'll need a supply of live copepods or you can hatch out Artemia
twice a day (AM and PM harvesting) as the baby brine shrimp should be < 24 hrs old to be nutritious. Or you can simply let them die off and remove them as this occurs. Another thing you can do is give them away. My first SH were day old fry shipped to me from the Chicage area (I live in L.A.) in drinking water bottles.
I've seen SH eat their fry (altho they normally don't), but when I offered SH fry to our preds, they didn't bother with them, so I'm not sure if your gobies will eat them. I think our scorps and lionfishes thought they were just too odd-looking to eat...LOL.
HTH
 
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