Treatment going well

Dear Nigel:

Water changes are an excellent disease prevention measure. Poor water quality is one of the most common stressors of seahorses in the aquarium, and making frequent water changes to maintain optimum water quality will help create a stress-free environment for our seahorses. So performing regular water changes and maintaining pristine water quality can help prevent a seahorse from developing an illness, but water changes cannot curé a sick seahorse once it has developed an active infection.

If you feel your male H. reidi is showing symptoms that could indicate the early stages of a tail infection, it’s important to begin treating him with broad spectrum antibiotics as soon as possible. Neo3 is usually a good antibiotic for tail rot and other tail problems, but it is a very concentrated formulation, so it is very important to does it properly in order to use it safely. If the Aquabiotics web site is down, and you don’t have directions that explain exactly how to use the Neo3, proceed with caution. In that event, I suggest you contact Marc Lamont and explain your dilemma regarding the Neo3 to him. Explain that you want to use it to treat a male H. reidi with a tail infection in a five-gallon hospital tank, but you don’t have instructions explaining how to use the antibiotics safely. He should be able to tell you exactly how to dose the Neo3 for your five-gallon hospital tank for best results. You can contact Marc as the following email address: [email protected]

I’m glad to hear that you began treatment with Neo3 and your male H. reidi is responding well to it so far. If you can get exact instructions explaining how to dose the Neo3 correctly so you can use it safely, by all means continue to do so. Otherwise, look for a medication at your LFS that contains kanamycin or neomycin as its primary ingredient and use it according to directions. Be sure to use the marine dosage for saltwater aquaria, which is usually at least twice the dosage recommended for freshwater tanks.

Best of luck with your seahorses, Nigel!

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna

It’s day3 of treatment and he’s curling his tail a little bit more. I think he will make it! He has a good appetite and is active. Everything is going fine.

It’s day 6 of the treatment. Yesterday he curled his tail all the way while he swam. He losely wraps his tail around the hitching posts. Today his color improved and he still is eating well.

Dear Nigel:

That’s an interesting observation about your seahorse flashing from bright yellow back to its normal brown coloration several times. I’m not sure what to make of this behavior, but as long as the water quality in your treatment tank is good and the seahorse is eating well, it’s probably nothing to be worried about.

In fact, seahorses normally darken in response to distress and brighten in coloration when conditions are to their liking, so the fact that your seahorse is showing a bright yellow coloration periodically now could be a good sign indicating that it’s starting to feel more like its old self again. I would be much more concerned if it was the other way around, and your bright yellow seahorse was darkening and turning brown during the course of its treatment, which would indicate that it was stressed out.

Hopefully, the bright yellow colors it has been flashing are a healthy sign. Best of luck with the rest of your treatment regimen, Nigel! Be sure to stay on top of the water quality in your hospital tank and make water changes as often as necessary to prevent ammonia spikes.

Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna