Dear Sherry:
Oh, that’s good news! If you were able to simply brush the air bubble(s) away, then you’re right – they were air bubbles from the water column adhering to the body of the seahorse rather than the subcutaneous emphysema associated with Gas Bubble Syndrome (GBS).
(That’s pretty unusual, since, unlike subcutaneous emphysema, the real air bubbles do not normally persist over a period of hours or days before they burst or float up to the surface of the tank,)
Yeah, the SeaChem Stability is a great product for any tank that is having cycling issues or problems with stubborn ammonia or nitrite spikes, Sherry. But the beneficial bacteria do require free ammonia to feed on in order to start the nitrogen cycle, so treating the tank with Amquel can be somewhat counterproductive and many such situations. Ammonia-sequestering products such as Amquel can sometimes also confuse the issue by leading to false positives, since some test kits cannot distinguish between bound ammonia and free ammonia or free ammonium…
When cycling a new tank with the Stability, it is customary to dose the tank for seven consecutive days using the Stability, and you should provide some sort of ammonia source during this period to feed the beneficial bacteria and allow them to build up an enormous population in the biological filtration media.
I also like to add a monthly booster of Stability by SeaChem to all my tanks, Sherry. For best results, I also add a dose following every partial water change in a normal marine aquarium, as well as whenever I add any new specimens to the tank.
Under the circumstances, I would just continue to work on the water quality in your rearing tank and hopefully your juvenile’s appetite will return to normal again.
Good luck!
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support
Ocean Rider, Inc. is an Organic Hawaiian-Based Seahorse Aqua-Farm & Aquarium that Follows Strict Good Farming Practices in Raising Seahorses and Other Aquatic Life.
