Sick seahorse please help

You can look on other posts that have similar problems for now. I am not an expert, and do not take my word for it, but you can give them both a Freshwater Dip. Pete has a huge tutorial on this, but do not be intimidated. It is a real simple concept. Get the ponies into Fresh Water. That’s it. Of course you ave to monitor them, and you cannot leave them in there for to long. Water Temps and Water Quality are important in a Fresh Water Dip. Put Something for them to hitch to and wait. I was told if they can go 8 min you are doing great, but you can’t just stop at 8 min. Let them go a little further or until they are really thrashing or look uncomfortable. If this happens before 8 mins. there is a problem. The less stress the better off they are, of course. But all of those extra things, may foul your water without proper filtration. I would yield to Pete’s postings, but like I said, don’t be intimidated. Chances are you will need to do this sometime if you are going stick with Saltwater Aquariums. I hope this helps, this forum has 100’s of posts, Pete has offered his support to us all, and I feel as a “Newbie” myself that we all should try and help whenever we can. You can do it, those little guys do count on you for most all of what they have, except their natural inclination to do whatever they are doing. That might help in a search for what is going on. If you cannot find it here, and cannot wait for an answer, use y he internet and research. Be sure you can find at the very least 2 sources to verify what ponies are displaying. Since you have had them this long, you also might have been able to deduct that each one has a certain “Character” about them. You know like are they feisty, strong, resilient, shy you know stuff like that. Have they been through much with your tank without question. Melafix and that kind of stuff, is a foreign substance that might initially have had an effect on them, so you might want to wait out the treatment. Just remember, that over time it does have an effect on your whole biological and mechanical filtration and depending on what brand, I cannot guarantee it won’t somehow foul your water. You can do it, kid!!!!!!! Got my fingers crossed……..

Dear Austin:

I’m very sorry to hear about the difficulties that have befallen your seahorse setup, sir, but I have some suggestions that may help the situation.

Under the circumstances, I think the best thing you can do is to obtain some live adult brine shrimp to tempt the seahorses to eat. Not only will the live adult brine shrimp help to stimulate the appetite of your seahorses, encouraging them to eat, but the brine shrimp can easily be gut loaded with medications to treat the bacterial infection you mentioned.

If none of your local fish stores or pet shops carry live adult brine shrimp, you can easily order it online from Dr.’s Foster and Smith at the following link:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=2190+2792&pcatid=2792

Once you have received the live adult brine shrimp and the seahorses are eating it well, you can proceed to gut load the next feeding of adult brine shrimp with a good antibiotic, sir.

I would recommend using Furan2 for this purpose, Austin, 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, Barbara, (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, Austin – that’s a good idea in a case like this, in order to help assure that the infection does not spread to both seahorses.

If, for any reason, the seahorses will not eat the live adult brine shrimp either, then you can administer the Furan2 directly to your hospital tank instead.

Here are the instructions for using the Furan2 properly in a typical 10-gallon hospital tank, sir:.

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.

As for the worm(s) you noticed, they could be nematodes, in which case it would be a good idea to eradicate them for the sake of your ponies, Austen. This can be accomplished by dosing your aquarium with fenbendazole AFTER you have completed the full 10-day regimen of Furan2 antibiotics.

The fenbendazole (i.e., Panacur) is an inexpensive anthelmintic agent (dewormer) used for large animals such as horses, and the de-worming granules can be obtained without a prescription from stores that carry agricultural products (e.g., farm and ranch equipment, farming supplies and products, veterinary supplies, livestock and horse supplies, livestock and horse feed). If you live in a rural area, those would be good places to obtain it as well.

there are a couple of things you should keep in mind when treating an aquarium with fenbendazole, Boston. Administering a regimen of fenbendazole (FBZ) or Panacur will eradicate any hydroids, Aiptasia rock anemones, or bristleworms from live rock or live sand, thereby rendering them completely seahorse safe. The recommended dose is 1/8 teaspoon of the horse dewormer granules (22.2% fenbendazole) per 10 gallons of water. Dose the live rock with 1/8 teaspoon/10 gallons every other day until you have administered a total of 3 such treatments (Liisa Coit, pers. com.). Even one dose will do a fine job of eradicating bristeworms, but Aiptasia rock anemones and hydroids are a bit tougher and may require 2-3 doses to eliminate entirely.

Because fenbendazole is essentially a de-worming agent, it will destroy any bristleworms, flat worms, spaghetti worms or the like. The FBZ or Panacur treatments are best administered to the live rock in a bucket or hospital tank before the LR is introduced in the main tank. Otherwise, the massive die-off of the worm population in the aquarium may require large water changes in order to prevent a dangerous ammonia spike! And after the treatment is completed, its a good idea to add a portion of newly purchased live sand to the system in order to help restore its normal diversity of fauna and microfauna again (Liisa Coit, pers. com.).

Fenbendazole does not have any adverse effects on biological filtration, but be aware that it is death to many Cnidarians besides hydroids. Mushrooms and related corals are generally not affected, but expect it to have dire effects on other corals (e.g., sinularias), polyps, gorgonians, and anemones. In general, any Cnidarians with polyps that resemble the stalked family of Hydrozoans are likely to be hit hard by fenbendazole, so don’t use this treatment in a reef tank!

Also be aware that fenbendazole seems to soak into the porous live rock and be absorbed indefinitely. I know one hobbyist who transferred a small piece of live rock that had been treated with fenbendazole (Panacur) months earlier into a reef tank, where it killed the resident starfish and Astrea snails. So enough of the medication may be retained within treated live rock to impact sensitive animals months after the fenbendazole was administered. Don’t treat live rock intended for reef systems with fenbendazole (Panacur)!

At the lower dosage recommended for nursery tanks and dwarf seahorse tanks with fry (1/16 tsp. per 10 gallons), fenbendazole normally does not harm cleaner shrimp and decorative shrimp. With the exception of Astrids (Astrea), Coit and Worden have found it does not usually affect the types of snails typically used as cleanup crews (e.g., Nassarius, Ceriths, and Nerites). It will kill starfish but copepods, hermit crabs, and shrimp are normally not affected.

Macroalgae such as the feathery or long-bladed varieties of Caulerpa or Hawaiian Ogo (Gracilaria) are not harmed by exposure to fenbendazole at even triple the normal dose. In fact, if you will be using Caulerpa in your nursery tanks to provide hitching posts for the fry and serve as a form of natural filtration, it’s a very wise precaution indeed to treat them with a regimen of fenbendazole beforehand.

So fenbendazole (FBZ) or Panacur is primarily useful for ridding bare-bottomed nursery tanks and dwarf seahorses setups of hyrdroids and Aiptasia anemones, ridding Caulerpa and other macroalge of hydroids or Aiptasia before its goes into the aquarium, and cleansing live rock of bristleworms, hydroids, and Aiptasia rock anemones before it is introduced to the aquarium.

It can also be used to eradicate bristleworms, hydroids, an Aiptasia from an established aquarium if it does not house sensitive animals such as live corals and gorgonians, starfish, Astrea snails, or tubeworms and other desirable worms that may be harmed by FBZ, providing you monitor the ammonia levels closely and are prepared to deal with the ammonia spike that may result from the sudden death of the worm population.

Again, if you cannot obtain the fenbendazole locally, it can be ordered online from Dr.’s Foster and Smith at the link indicated below:

Most home hobbyists are familiar with the Dr.’s Foster and Smith website and it will be a simple, reliable place for them to obtain the fenbendazole:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4615+4629+12101&pcatid=12101

Best of luck resolving these problems and restoring your seahorses to good health again, Austin.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna, Ocean Rider Tech Support