Re:Sea Horse injury

#5503
Pete Giwojna
Guest

Dear Amber:

I am very sorry to hear about the mishap that injured the tail of one of your seahorses. There are a couple of things that you could do to treat such an injury, help it to heal, and allow the seahorse to recover more quickly, Amber.

First of all, if you can obtain it locally from one of the pet stores or fish stores in your area, applying Debride Medicated Ointment to the "skinned" areas of the tail will help the seahorse to feel much better, Amber. The medicated ointment contains a topical anesthetic that will numb and soothe the affected areas, whereas the corticosteroids will reduce any swelling or inflammation, as explained below:

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Debride Medicated Ointment

Debride is a medicated ointment that promotes prompt and complete healing of ulcers, mouth rot, fin rot, and tail rot, all symptoms of Aeromonas and Pseudomonas. Koi Care Kennel conducted extensive field trials on this product in 2001. We sent samples of Debride to over 100 hobbyist and dealers who had requested these samples and who had sick fish. The user’s evaluation came back at a 90% success rate.

Debride is safe to apply to the fish’s mouth and will not harm the gills. Debride contains Corticosteroide and topical anesthetic in a butylester copolymer Petroleum distillate carrier. Debride comes in two sizes, a 12 gram tube for approx. 20 applications and a 1 oz. (28.3 grams) tube for approx. 45 applications.

Suggested Retail Price: 12 gram tube $25.95 , 1 oz. (28.3 gram) $44.95
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If you cannot obtain the Debride Medicated Ointment locally, then the next best alternative would probably be to disinfect the skinned areas of the seahorse’s tail using a good topical antiseptic such as povidone iodine (brand name Betadine), which you can obtain over-the-counter at any drugstore or pharmacy, Amber.

Applying the antiseptic topically is a very simple procedure, Amber, but it does require you to remove the affected seahorse from the water briefly. To prepare for this procedure, you will need to lay out a stack of paper towels in your work area, along with the iodine or Betadine and a small cup of aquarium water from the seahorse tank.

When you are ready to proceed, cup the stallion in the palm of your non-dominate hand and allow him to wrap his tail around your fingers so that he feels secure. When the stallion has a good grip on one of more of your fingers in such a way that the reddish spot is readily exposed and easily accessible, lift him out of the aquarium and hold him over the stack of paper towels in the upright position, with his head higher than his tail.

Then dribble the Betadine antiseptic liberally over the open wounds and injured areas of the seahorse’s tail using your dominant hand (or have a helper standing by to carefully apply the antiseptic while you hold the pony), being very careful not to let any of it get into the cup of aquarium water or to come in contact with the fish’s gills, eyes, or mouth. The idea is to dribble the antiseptic over the injured areas from a short distance above the suspicious spot without actually touching the skin or contacting the seahorse with any sort of a swab or applicator.

The povidone iodine (brand name Betadine) kills germs on contact, so it will disinfect the affected area within moments, Amber. Just wait 5-10 seconds for the excess Betadine to drip onto the stack of paper towels, and then immerse the tail of the seahorse in the cup of aquarium water two or three times – keeping the seahorses head out of the cup of water while you do so – in order to rinse off the excess Betadine, and immediately release the seahorse back into the main tank.

That’s all there is to it, Amber. It’s a simple procedure, which should take no more than 30-60 seconds, and is completely noninvasive so there should be a minimum of stress on the seahorse. If the seahorse tolerates the handling and disinfecting process well, you can repeat these topical treatments daily if necessary.

Finally, Amber, it would also be prudent to treat the seahorse using antibiotics to help prevent any secondary infections from setting in at the site of the wounds and to promote quicker healing. If the seahorse with the injured tail is still eating, then the best way to administer the antibiotics is by gutloading live adult brine shrimp using an appropriate medication, and then immediately feeding the medicated adult brine shrimp to the seahorse.

That’s the best way to administer the antibiotics because the seahorse will ingest them, assuring that the medication will be absorbed into the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract, and because it will allow you to treat the affected seahorse in the main tank, without isolating him from his tankmates. He can stay amidst familiar surroundings in the company of his herdmates, so it will be a very stress-free method of treating your pony.

I would recommend using Furan2 for this purpose, Amber, because it is effective in treating non-ulcerative skin infections, it is ideally administered orally via gutloaded adult brine shrimp, and both the live adult brine shrimp and the Furan2 can be readily obtained from well-stocked fish stores.

Here are the instructions for gut loading live adult brine shrimp with the Furan2, Amber, (courtesy of Ann at the org):

FURAN-BASED MEDS (oral) Dosage and Preparation Instructions for a 10g/38L Hospital Tank
Active Ingredients: Nitrofurazone and/or Furazolidone
Indication: bacterial infection
Brand Names: Furan-2, Furanase, Binox, BiFuran+, FuraMS, Furazolidone Powder
Feed adult brine shrimp gut-loaded with medication to the Seahorse 2x per day for 10 days.
• Add a small amount of the medication to one gallon of water and mix thoroughly.
• Place the amount of adult brine shrimp needed for one feeding into the mixture. Leave them in the mixture for at least 2hrs.
• Remove the adult brine shrimp from the mixture and add them to the hospital tank.
• Observe the Seahorse to be certain it is eating the adult brine shrimp.

In my experience, the best way to gutload the adult brine shrimp is to set up a clean plastic pail with 1 gallon of freshly mixed saltwater, add one packet of the Furan 2, add enough live adult brine shrimp for a generous feeding for all of your seahorses to the bucket after you have thoroughly and carefully rinsed them in freshwater to disinfect the shrimp. Leave the adult brine shrimp in the medicated bucket for at least two hours and then feed them directly to the seahorses. Repeat this procedure twice a day for 10 days.

Don’t worry that all the seahorses will be eating the medicated brine shrimp, Amber – it won’t be harmful to any of the ponies if they ingest the gut motored adult brine shrimp.

If the injuries are bothering the seahorse so much that he is no longer eating, Amber, then you can treat him with the Furan2 in a hospital tank instead. Just follow the instructions below in that event:

FURAN-2 (immersion) Dosage and Preparation Instructions for a 10g/38L Hospital Tank
Active Ingredient: Nitrofurazone and Furazolidone
Indication: bacterial infection
Disregard package info concerning water changes and duration of treatment. Dose medication daily for 10 days.
Replace the medication in ratio to the amount of water changed daily as needed to control ammonia.
This product is best administered by feeding it to adult live brine shrimp, then in turn, feeding those
animals to the Seahorse. If this is not an option, it may be administered as follows.
DAY 1 of Treatment
• Thoroughly mix one packet of Furan-2 with about 1 cup of marine water.
• Pour the mixture into a high-flow area of the hospital tank.
DAYS 2 – 10 of Treatment
• Perform a 50% water change.
• Thoroughly mix one packet of Furan-2 with about 1 cup of marine water.
• Pour the mixture into a high-flow area of the hospital tank.

Okay, Amber, those are some of the things you can do to help assure that these injuries do not become infected and to help your seahorse feel better and recover more quickly.

In general, it’s a very good idea for seahorse keepers to take special precautions when using powerheads or internal circulation pumps in a seahorse tank in order to assure that a curious seahorse does not get its tail injured or damaged by the impeller for the powerhead/pump. Basically, this just means that whenever the intake for a powerhead pump is large enough to allow an unsuspecting seahorse to get its tail inside, it’s a good idea to shield or otherwise screen off the intake, regardless of how strong the suction may be, just to be on the safe side. Often this merely involves positioning the powerhead amidst the rockwork or anchoring it in place with the suction cup where there’s no possibility for a seahorse to perch on the powerhead or wrap its tail around the inflow/intake for the unit.

When that’s not possible, you may need to take more elaborate measures in order to screen off the intake from the pump are powerhead to make it safe for the seahorses, Amber.

For example, here’s how to proceed when using the Hydor Koralia powerheads, which are relatively safe compared to other types of powerheads. For one thing, since they are not impeller-operated, the intake or suction is fairly weak compared to a normal powerhead, and there is therefore no danger that a curious seahorse will have its tail injured by an impeller. Secondly, the "egg" or basket-like structure that covers the powerhead often offers sufficient protection so that an adult seahorse really cannot injure its tail. For example, the gaps in the Koralia 1 are only 1/8 of an inch wide, which is too small for grown seahorse’s tail to fit to the gaps.

Just to be on the safe side, some seahorse keepers will encase the entire egg for a Koralia powerhead in a veil-like material, especially if they have smaller ponies, as explained below:

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"I have a Koralia that works great in my anemone tankI have a Koralia that works great in my anemone tank(no seahorses). Just in case I bought a piece of Tulle (bridal veil material) to cover it. I got the purple tulle that looks just like coraline algae. Just cut it into a square and put it over the Koralia and secure the ends with a zip tie. Think of it like a lollipop wrapper-if the pump is the lollipop the tulle is the wrapper and instead of twisting the paper at the bottom like a lollipop you secure with a zip-tie. I have H. fuscus and H.barbouri and they could definetly hitch on the Koralia (and I have the nano) The pump still works great and nothing can get in it."
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The Tulle trick will work just as well for screening the intakes of other types of powerheads or circulation pumps as well, and the bridal veil material is not so fine that it will easily get clogged up or impede the flow through the device.

Also, Amber, the Hydor Koralias have a sort of "flow focuser" that you can snap on the front of the egg to help direct the flow. I would recommend keeping this collar on, since it will act as an additional barrier if a seahorse was to try and hitch to the very front of the egg. (Which seems improbable given the strength of the flow, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.)

However, with the full focuser in place, you will likely find that the water flow from a Koralia 1 is to overpowering for seahorses in a relatively small tank of say 30 gallons. If that’s the case, that would be better to leave the flow focuser off, since that will diffuse or moderate the water flow from the powerhead.

Best of luck healing your seahorses injured tail, Amber.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support


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