Seahorse spends most of its time hanging upside down...

[lisavet2000]

Ok I'm going to try to make this story short...
I received 2 unexpected CB Erectus Seahorses about 2 weeks ago, I was suppose to get a fish and ended up getting 2 Seahorses instead. I do have a Seahorse tank the only problem is it is only 20 gallons. It has 2 H.Comes, 1 Clown Goby, 1 Fire Shrimp, and a hermet crab. I know the tank is already too small for the 2 Seahorses I have and I have been waiting to upgrade to a bigger one, just haven't been able to yet. I know I have to upgrade alot faster now that I have these two new editions. The 2 Seahorses arrived well, I acclimated them and then added them to the tank. They looked very skinny compared to mine so I added another feeding to see if they fatten up. The male has gained weight, but the female still seems skinny even though she eats very well. She also spend most of her time hanging upside down, and when she is not hanging upside down she is on the floor and it seems like she can't keep herself up. I tried searching the Internet to see if I could find anything on this condition but I cant find anything. I only find sites that say that its not a good thing but no one explains what kind of condition it is or the treatment. I do have a hospital tank I can treat her in, I just haven't put her in since I don't know what to treat her with.
Any help would be appreciated, they arrived unexpected but that doesn't mean I wont do everything I can to make sure they make it.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lisavet2000 http:///t/392864/seahorse-spends-most-of-its-time-hanging-upside-down#post_3491218
Ok I'm going to try to make this story short...
I received 2 unexpected CB Erectus Seahorses about 2 weeks ago, I was suppose to get a fish and ended up getting 2 Seahorses instead. I do have a Seahorse tank the only problem is it is only 20 gallons. It has 2 H.Comes, 1 Clown Goby, 1 Fire Shrimp, and a hermet crab. I know the tank is already too small for the 2 Seahorses I have and I have been waiting to upgrade to a bigger one, just haven't been able to yet. I know I have to upgrade alot faster now that I have these two new editions. The 2 Seahorses arrived well, I acclimated them and then added them to the tank. They looked very skinny compared to mine so I added another feeding to see if they fatten up. The male has gained weight, but the female still seems skinny even though she eats very well. She also spend most of her time hanging upside down, and when she is not hanging upside down she is on the floor and it seems like she can't keep herself up. I tried searching the Internet to see if I could find anything on this condition but I cant find anything. I only find sites that say that its not a good thing but no one explains what kind of condition it is or the treatment. I do have a hospital tank I can treat her in, I just haven't put her in since I don't know what to treat her with.
Any help would be appreciated, they arrived unexpected but that doesn't mean I wont do everything I can to make sure they make it.
Hi, welcome to the site.
So you mixed two breeds of SHs in the same tank? I was warned to not do that because the horses are exposed to pathigens they normally wouldn't be. The other possibility...she is fine and found some yummy amphipods on the bottom.
I accidently exposed my Erectus to super bacteria from flushing a nitrate filters clogged hose in the sump, and all but one of the horses died by morning, the one remaining sat on the bottom of the tank (not hitched) and just kind of fell over, then would get up and swim to another spot, and do the same thing...it was dead before the next day.
Is she hitching and reaching down, or just sitting on the bottom of the tank and dropping over to her side?

 

[lisavet2000]

Yes, I had to mix them because I didn't know what else to do since they came to me unexpected. When she is at the bottom she does drop over to her side and when she goes after food she seems to have trouble keeping herself balanced. She does move from there and hitches but when she is hitching she is upside down. She is eating really good, I used to feed my 2 H. Comes twice a day, but since I got them I started to feed 3 times a day to get them to gain weight and she eats really good all 3 times. Is there a list of seahorse disease's and there symptoms and what kind of medication you can use to help that disease?

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by lisavet2000 http:///t/392864/seahorse-spends-most-of-its-time-hanging-upside-down#post_3491239
Yes, I had to mix them because I didn't know what else to do since they came to me unexpected. When she is at the bottom she does drop over to her side and when she goes after food she seems to have trouble keeping herself balanced. She does move from there and hitches but when she is hitching she is upside down. She is eating really good, I used to feed my 2 H. Comes twice a day, but since I got them I started to feed 3 times a day to get them to gain weight and she eats really good all 3 times. Is there a list of seahorse disease's and there symptoms and what kind of medication you can use to help that disease?
Look up seahorse.org. My seahorses hang upside down to eat all the time. As long as she is hitching and searching for food...being on her side isn't a sign of probems either, if she is hitched. It kind of sounds like she might be trying to get in the best possition to snick up a pod.

 

[lisavet2000]

Thanks Flower!
She seems to be doing better, she seems to have a little more balance, and is able to keep herself upright when on the floor. She still is upside down when she is hitching on the thermometer though. She seems to be gaining weight which is good. Hopefully she will be ok. Here are some pictures of them I took today......
This is the male


The Cirri on him were a lot longer when I received him, do the break off and if so do they grow back?
And here is the female......


And here they are together......

 

[flower]

Wow!!! They look awesome! I don't know about the cirri, none of my horses ever had it, not even my potbelly, that are known for cirri on the head....I have read from those who did, that they go away. Nobody is 100% on that so just wait and see. As long as you are not seeing sore spots, bubbles on her body under the skin, and the horse is eating well and hitching, I'm sure she is fine.

 

[saxman]

Captive SH tend to absorb their cirri as they don't need them anymore. Most captive SH don't have huge stands of macro to hide/hunt in, so they don't need the camouflage.
Your tank is WAY too small, as you're aware, so you need to address that ASAP or you may have stress issues due to overcrowding.
Since it doesn't appear that you QT'd the new arrivals, AND you've mixed species (each species has its own immunity to various pathogens), I'd do my best to lower the temp in the tank to mid-low 70's (74*F max) to keep the bacterial count in check.
Did your water spike when you added the new fish? It could be why the SH is lying down, but it could be stress from shipping (it's awfully warm to be shipping fish right now). If the SH doesn't begin to act normally, I'd pull it out to a hospital tank (run at 68*F), and consider treating with Acetazolamide (Diamox), which sometimes helps with negative buoyancy altho it's generally used for edema and positive buoyancy issues.
HTH

 

[lisavet2000]

Yes I know I need to upgrade ASAP, I am shopping around. I have an empty Bio Cube but I know they are not the best setup for Seahorses. As for the temperature, I have it right now at 68-72. I lowered it as soon as I realized the female was having problems. I also added an air line to give them more oxygen since she seemed to be breathing really hard. The water did not spike when I introduced them, I did a water change before introducing them and also one 2 days later when she started acting weird. Normally I do one every week. I don't have sand so I always remove all the left over food or debris when I do the water change. I try to keep this tank very clean. She seems to be doing better, she eats a lot and seems to be gaining weight.