brazilians not eatting

[NewbieForever]

I got a pair of ORA orange brazilians a week ago and they havent eatten yet. I have an erectus and a yellow reidi already in the tank doing well. I feed 2-3x a day with one cube of mysis per feeding. The new horses are just ignoring the food as it float right by them.

The water quality is good, and the temp is always 75-76 tank has a chiller.

I am going to hatch out, and grow out some brine shrimp and mix the live brine with the frozen mysis over the next few weeks but this seems odd.

Is there any thing different I could be doing to help the process along?

Thanks

 

[ann83]

What is your pH and what are your nitrates?

Considering the fact that you are trying to mix the reidi with the erectus, I'd bring your temperature down to at least 72, better to 68, for a while to help the seahorses fight the foreign bacteria they are likely dealing with.

 

[NewbieForever]

Nitrate are below 10, pH is in normal 7.9-8.1 range depending on time of day tested.

How does the lower tempature help them fight foreign bacteria?

 

[ann83]

The low temperature keeps the bacteria from reproducing as quickly and keeps it producing less virulent proteins.

Try brining the pH up to 8.2-8.3. A low pH can put some seahorses off their food.

 

[ReefNutPA]

In addition to the great advice Ann has given, make sure you are feeding the new additions they same brand of mysis shrimp they were eating at the store/ORA. Not all mysis is the same.

For example, my 2 year old pairs of Erectus don't even consider Hikari mysis food. They will only eat PE Mysis. The juveniles will only eat Hikari mysis, and won't eat PE Mysis.

Tom

 

[pledosophy]

If they have not eaten by now they are dead. So if they are still swimming they are eating something.

I would try moving them to a barebottom QT tank so you can monitor how much they are eating, and how much they are pooping. Will give you time to examine the poop if they are eating as well to see if it is solid and purple or white and stringy.

The consistency of the poo is important.

My seahorses have always been picky and brand specific. Spoiled to say the least. If they will go for PE I prefer it to hikari IMO.

Feeding freshly hatched brine is a waste of time. They should not recognize it as being food.

HTH

 

[NewbieForever]

I am growing the brine out not feeding freshly hatched which I realize isnt to good for them but something is better then nothing.

FWIW, they still are not eatting the mysis. There are pods in the tnak and such but this isnt going to be a solid source for long. I will continue to work on getting them eatting correctly.

I am picking my son up from school soon and am taking him to my LFS, and hour and a half away to look for some different mysis brands.

They also sell trigger pods and ghost shrimp so I will get some as well.

Thanks for the advise.

 

[LisaD]

try smaller gutloaded ghost shrimp. if they take them, you can start mixing in freshly killed, then all killed mixed with some larger frozen mysis (like PE). be patient. I have tried feeding the live/dead mix in the evening and frozen only in the morning, when they seem hungriest.

H reidi are notorious for being hard to train to eat frozen. sometimes CB will "forget" to recognize frozen as food.

you take a risk mixing species from different sources, especially if you have not gone through a 6-8 week QT before adding them to the tank. H. erectus is notorous for being a symptomless carrier of Vibrio, which could wipe out seahorses without resistance (even QT won't help this).

 

[NewbieForever]

All the horses are ORA's but I hear ya on the mixing. The ghost shrimp my LFS had were all too large for these horses. They are all still alive but still ignoring the mysis. I am going to order some live feed online any suggestions?

Thanks for the help.

 

[ann83]

Last I heard, ORA was importing their H. reidi from overseas. I'm not sure where they get their H. erectus (or whether they raise them themselves), but they are not raised together, therefore it is "mixing" when it comes to the risk of bacterial problems. I'd try to reduce your temperature and keep a close eye on the reidi for other signs of a problem.

 

[NewbieForever]

I did reduce the temp after you last post, the tank has a big chiller on it so this is not hard for me to adjust.

 

[pledosophy]

If they are still not eating frozen I would try moving them to a bare bottom tank with no liverock and only plastic hitches.

Less distraction. IME it is the best way to switch over to, or switch back to frozen.

IME seahorses can eat a pretty good sized ghost shrimp, sometimes they do it in multiple snicks (which is so cool to watch) but there are certain sizes that are just to much especially for young ones.

For ordering live food online I would try seawaterexpress.com , they have always been my favorite, great product and good service.

 

[NewbieForever]

Cool I am going to order some of these smaller snickin shrimp from seawaterexpress, kind of look like small ghost shrimp? Anyhow thats for the link. its frustrating when the mysis floats down and lands on the horse snout and he shakes it off and swims away. Yesterday one of the braz's swam all the way across the tank to a mysis floating down and just when I though he was going to snick it up, he looked close and turned away.

 

[LisaD]

How is it going?

I second pledosophy on trying the ghost shrimp from your LFS if you haven't received your snicken shrimp yet. Also the bare bottom tank (with some cured live rock).

Have the LFS pick out the smallest 5-10 shrimp. Acclimate slowly to salt, they will last longer. A determined seahorse can take down a pretty large shrimp.

 

[NewbieForever]

Well one started eatting frozen, the other died. The one that started eatting is doing much better now.