Need some help.

[ozmosis7]

Ever see anything like this? Just started overnight a couple night ago. Still eats, but seems to be having more trouble hunting today. Only ate a few smaller pieces of mysis and seemed to struggle getting that down. Stomach looks too empty. Looks like he's been beaten up a little. Only fish in tank are an algae blenny and a royal gramma, a few snails and hermits too. Other two ponies look fine and are eating great. Any advice?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Hopefully @SeahorseKeeper might have a thought.

 

[ozmosis7]

Thanks. By the way, I should mention I have the 3 of them in a 30 tall with a lot of tongan rock and red macroalgae. A few polyps and zoas and some xenia and monti caps are only corals. The three came from ORA and are kudas.

 

[ozmosis7]

Oh, and previous owner kept them under blue lights only. I have a kiss sky blue running for a good part of the day and they seem to sleep during the few hours of moonlights.

 

[ozmosis7]

One more thing I just noticed. Up until last night they all 3 hitched at the same point each day and night. Now the hurt one seems to hitch elsewhere most of the day and night, when not exploring (which it still does)

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Do you have the ability to set up a quarantine tank? Can you tell me a little more about the tank? Water parameters? Water temp? How long have you had them?

 

[ozmosis7]

1.024 sal 360 cal 1300 mag no phos or nit. I took in the tank and added it to my system several months ago. It was used for seahorses prior to this, but everything is doing well. Have a 75 and another 30 on the same system. The tank is a tall semicircle type. I don't have a QT tank set up, but can soon. I e gas them for a little over a week. He really looks like he's been attacked. The other two (one female and one male) seem unaffected. Also, suddenly the injured one seems better and hungry, and he is interacting with the others again. Do you think the other male did this?

 

[ozmosis7]

Oh, temp is 77-78.

 

[ozmosis7]

Also just now noticing one of the rocks with macro algae is sunken. Maybe he got hurt by a rock collapse?

 

[ozmosis7]

Here are pics of him about two days ago, and how they sleep at night, and the tank.

 

[vlangel]

77-78 is a bit high for seahorses in that dangerous bacteria breed exponentially in temperatures over 74 degrees. Is it possible for you to add a fan and cool the tank down a few degrees? Also I think I would cover the power head with a mesh to prevent any pony tails from finding their way into it.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Two things jump out at me: 1. The temp needs to be lowered. 2. That power head needs to be covered. The seahorses can get injured very easily with that power head.

 

[ozmosis7]

I have s heater near the return for this tank. I'm going to move and see if I can dig up a clip on fan. The previous owner kept them around 78, though. So should I lower slowly? Or minimally? Also, any recommendations on what to cover the wavemaker with?

 

[tjdouglas]

I am sorry to hear that your Kuda has been hurt. I hope he is feeling better now. For what it's worth, I had to take out my algae blenny because he would try to "clean" the algae from my seahorses. The blenny would leave scrapes on their skin which quickly became infected. I lost two seahorses before I realized what was happening. Just mentioning that this is a possibility. Best wishes on your Kuda's speedy recovery.

 

[ozmosis7]

I'll keep an eye on that too. I did see the algae blenny do that once when one got too close, but would it single out only one or do it to all of them? By the way, he was doing a lot better last night, swimming around and eating as usual. Going to work on all these things today and see if I can't make it better for him. Regarding the temperature, the previous owner confirmed they ran their tank at 77-79, but I am guessing a little colder would do better for them.

 

[ozmosis7]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions, everyone. Much appreciated.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I have s heater near the return for this tank. I'm going to move and see if I can dig up a clip on fan. The previous owner kept them around 78, though. So should I lower slowly? Or minimally? Also, any recommendations on what to cover the wavemaker with?

You can use pantyhose, filter soak, or foam (like for a canister filter) to cover the wavemaker.

I'll keep an eye on that too. I did see the algae blenny do that once when one got too close, but would it single out only one or do it to all of them? By the way, he was doing a lot better last night, swimming around and eating as usual. Going to work on all these things today and see if I can't make it better for him. Regarding the temperature, the previous owner confirmed they ran their tank at 77-79, but I am guessing a little colder would do better for them.

77-79 is too high for seahorses. Bacteria can run rampant at warmer water temps and the seahorses can succumb to illness quickly. Lower temps help to keep the bacteria at bay. This is especially important when we keep seahorses in our tank, since they are confined to a smaller environment.

 

[ozmosis7]

Found a pretty big media bag I can use to cover the wave maker pretty well. Think I can fold it over itself and use the drawstring to keep it tight. Removed the heater and the temp is going down a little. Going to check Walmart for a clip on to cool off the water closest to the light and return. That should help. I do think it might be the blenny, so I have traps set to take out the blenny and gramma. They can both go in my display and only ended up int here by accident anyway (had holed up and didn't know they were in the rocks when I set up the tank). Wish me good fishing.

 

[ozmosis7]

So far both fish have done nothing but look at my bottle traps and then at me as if saying, "You don't really think I'm falling for that, do you?"

 

[redfishbluefish]

Here's the little secret with bottle traps that hasn't failed me yet. Cut a little hole in the middle of the bottle that will fit the tip of your turkey baster. Pick a taste food....I've always used mysis because no one can resist mysis. Squirt it into the bottle trap and leave the turkey baster in the hole. Every so often (maybe 30 seconds) give the turkey baster another squirt. This will cause the food to swirl around the inside of the bottle like a snow-globe. The little bugger fish will see this taste food an dart into the bottle. Got ya!

It's not pretty, but here you can see the hole in my trap: