My seahorses are breathing rapid and hasnt eaten in 1.5 days ... please help !!

[vcarlyle62]

My lovely little seahorse, I have 3, all about 7 months with me. They have done fantastic in a 15 gallon namo but I felt they were outgrowing it so I have moved them to a red sea 170 (35 gal I believe with 15gallon sump) they did ok the first week but then this started. They have been hanging at the bottom and this morning breathing fast, they also didn't take any mysis. They seem sluggish from their norm.

The new tank cycled for 1.5 months with live sand and dry rock. It is also set up with large cheato in sump because seahorses are messy and I wanted to keep parameters good.

I tested again this am with no big changes from yest checks.
Nitrate 2.4
Phos 0.08
Ph 8.5
Alk 9.8
Salt 35 or 1.026
Temp 76.6

The tank has no stinging corals but does have a couple large toadstool and so.e zoas and Duncan's, mostly it is large decorative macroalgeas in the display and cheato in sump. They only fish with them are 4 small cardinals. There are snails and hermits. Nothing else

I do not know what is happening, everything seems fine. I was worried maybe not enough o2 so I added a air Stone this am as well.

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm sorry to hear about your ponies, I wish them the best. I am not knowledgeable with seahorses, but my concern here is your nitrogen cycle. Can you test for Ammonia? Breathing heavy can be a sign of ammonia poisoning as it damages the fish's gills.

You mentioned that you cycled your tank with dry rock and live sand? Did you add anything else, like a source of ammonia from either decaying fish food or bottled ammonium chloride? Did you test for ammonia and at least nitrate during this cycle?

My concern is that your new tank wasn't fully cycled, and is now experiencing ammonia poisoning.

Again, I'm not a seahorse expert, so maybe wait for those more knowledgeable, but my advice would be to test for ammonia and if elevated (like greater than 0.25ppm) do a very large water change to bring the ammonia down.

Good luck!

 

[vcarlyle62]

Ammonia is zero , I have a contious checker thing.

 

[The_Paradox]

It’s been ages since I kept seahorses but I remember it being a pain to get flow where there was enough oxygenation. Doubt it’s ammonia after a week. Did anything change with flow or skimmer?

 

[vcarlyle62]

I may do a water change anyway tho, I just dont know at this point what will stress them more and what will help so I'm consulting this forum for some advice. Typically I do 25% water change every other week.

 

[Fish Fan]

Ammonia is zero , I have a contious checker thing.

The Seachem test badge? I've used those, I'm not sure how accurate they are, but on the other hand most of the color changing kits we use are not very accurate for ammonia.

Again, ammonia is my best guess, after that I'm not sure. And personally I am a believer in large water changes when things look bad. But you may want to wait for someone more knowledgeable and with more seahorse experience specifically.

 

[Fish Fan]

It’s been ages since I kept seahorses but I remember it being a pain to get flow where there was enough oxygenation. Doubt it’s ammonia after a week. Did anything change with flow or skimmer?

See to me I would have thought it would take about a week for the ammonia to build up to a toxic level. I could be totally wrong here.

 

[vcarlyle62]

I have the flow set about 25% of what the pump will do because it seemed to be blowing them around any faster. It's high enough now that the macro sways and the seahorses were able to go up in the water column.

 

[vcarlyle62]

I did load 4 jars of copepods yesterday from alfea barn and changed the lighting a bit to more blue but I don't think any other changes

 

[vcarlyle62]

Oh, and I don't use a skimmer

 

[Fish Fan]

And you said in your original post that you added an airstone, so I didn't think it would be low O2. And if it's not ammonia, is there anyway some other kind of poison got into the system? A cleaning product used nearby or something? I'm just trying to think of ideas...

 

[vcarlyle62]

I added the airstone this am so I am not sure how long it takes to work but I'd say it's been going about 2 hrs. I don't think anything could get in but I'm not sure how to tell. I do have a media on hand that's supposed to remove toxins that I can add into a reactor. Currently just running carbon because of the large toadstool corals.

 

[vcarlyle62]

The media thing is called pureit

 

[The_Paradox]

I added the airstone this am so I am not sure how long it takes to work but I'd say it's been going about 2 hrs. I don't think anything could get in but I'm not sure how to tell. I do have a media on hand that's supposed to remove toxins that I can add into a reactor. Currently just running carbon because of the large toadstool corals.

Take a couple hours then probably a couple more because seahorses tend to be ungodly skiddery. If it turns out to be aeration easiest fix would be cheap skimmer. May also want to change the light back just to rule it out.

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm not familiar with PureIt, and I'm not even saying for sure that's your problem. I just feel bad, and was throwing out some ideas, even if you can rule them out.

I would think if they oxygen was low they would bounce back quickly once you added the airstone.

If you can prepare it with the same temp, salinity, etc., maybe doing a large water change would help? That's usually my go to when things look really bad, but obviously you don't want to stress them more.

 

[vcarlyle62]

I have a heater on my water tub so it's always the same temp. Ph wise it will be lower than my talk tho but not typucally by much

 

[vcarlyle62]

Any chance they have infection or something in their gills?

 

[The_Paradox]

Any chance they have infection or something in their gills?

No other fish in either tank? I wouldn’t think so but it’s possible. For me it was usually stress for what you’re describing which in turn stressed me. Maybe just mine but everything seemed to stress them which is why I gave the whole tank away first chance I got. Loved having tiny horse tank on my file cabinet but they were bothered by everything.

 

[vcarlyle62]

There are the 4 small cardinal fish , they are new, about 1 week but we're put through a qt , non medicated qt , just observation

 

[vcarlyle62]

And the emails and hermits were added about 1 month ago