Hippocampus kuda labor

[Natalie Rae Rizzo]

Hey everyone! Natt here! I work at an exotic animal rescue and we received some seahorses 2 weeks ago from is fish & wildlife. One male seems to be pregnant and is possibly in labor. I have put him in a nursery tank inside the regular tank since he does have hungry fish mates. I just want to make sure I haven't moved him too early .I tried to attach a video and it would not let me so there are some photos. He does not have a mate that arrived with him which is why I have moved him .

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Corey Baker]

Awesome! Good luck

 

[vlangel]

He is not looking especially pregnant to me. I am not experienced with H kuda but my H erectus's pouches balloon a whole lot more than that. Sometimes they will inflate their pouches to impress the girls.

 

[Natalie Rae Rizzo]

He is not looking especially pregnant to me. I am not experienced with H kuda but my H erectus's pouches balloon a whole lot more than that. Sometimes they will inflate their pouches to impress the girls.

Is there a good way to tell? He's been that size for the two weeks he's been here and it looks as though he keeps doing cruches and the opening of his pouch widens . Also a little bit twitchy. We had one give birth when I wasn't here and the fries were all eaten so I don't want to risk it but I also don't want to be putting him through being separated of he doesn't have to be.

Thanks!

 

[vlangel]

Is there a good way to tell? He's been that size for the two weeks he's been here and it looks as though he keeps doing cruches and the opening of his pouch widens . Also a little bit twitchy. We had one give birth when I wasn't here and the fries were all eaten so I don't want to risk it but I also don't want to be putting him through being separated of he doesn't have to be.

Thanks!

If he has not changed size in 2 weeks then he is not pregnant. The fry are ready for the male to release them in around 19 days.

It is common for males to do a pumping action and twitch to attract females. You can double check and do a fresh water dip to make sure that it is not parasites causing the pumping and twitching. If he thrashes around during the FW dip then he is battling parasites. If he acts pretty normal then I would return him in with the others.

 

[I'm a natural blue]

Hey Natt! How cool to work where you do! I love it.
I have a couple questions...what are the other "hungry tank mates" and are you running a bubbler in his portion of the nursery? Any filtration/water movement?
I've never owned Kuda. Only erectus. I have to agree though that he doesn't look pregnant to me either. My male inflates and deflates his pouch at will. And does crunches to open it. It looks silly!

 

[Natalie Rae Rizzo]

Thank you all so much for the info! Unfortunately I just had 12 of 14 seahorses in that tank pass away in the past 3 days .I'm devastated and I have no idea what has caused such a die out. All were eating .the tank mates are 2 monofish and a few small damsels. My heart is crushed they were all so amazing .The other 6 that I also received from US fish and wildlife are doing great in another tank .Water quality has .25 nitrite and I did a 20% water change 2 days ago after 5 died . I am so bummed but this isn't completely out of the ordinary when animals are being smuggled .still my heart hurts

 

[rayjay]

Sorry to hear of the demise of so many.
I would recommend in future that you keep them in species only tanks, at least for a period of time to determine if survival is probable.
I would never have damsels in with seahorses as they are much too likely to a the least, cause elevated stress levels in the seahorses that could allow pathogens/bacteria to expand and cause deaths.
If these seahorses have not been in your care for long, the fatalities probably were beyond anything you could do.
Exposure to pathogens they haven't grown up with can be problematic but I think it would take longer than 5 days to get to that point.
Bacterial disease or internal chemical imbalances also would take some time to get critical.
While nitrite levels are not as critical as ammonia, where just a very small amount can damage the gills, In my tanks I would have treated with Cloram-X as a binder for immediate relief.

 

[Natalie Rae Rizzo]

Yes thanks for the input! Since I'm working at an exotic animal rescue sadly some tank mates cannot be avoided .I am working on setting up a quarantine tank currently, but sadly I have limited resources. The other tank has about 10 thriving with no issues yet .And one survivor of the fatality tank, I want to move him but also if he does have a sickness I do not want to move that along to the other oh the dilemnas

 

[I'm a natural blue]

I'm so sorry to hear this!