Gas

[jimfairchild]

Hi we can use some opinions, advice, remedies or just some old common sense please?

Got a lil problem I would welcome you taking a shot or guess. Sonny who is 4 1/2-year-old CB Erectus has been living pretty happily until a few weeks ago.

Sonny and his 3 buddy horses live in a 30-gallon extra high tank, which is 25 inches tall. Only in the last few weeks he appears too have a gas like bubble disease. Physically it looks as if the disease is confined to his abdomen and not just his pouch.

Marie grasps him like Lisa Dââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s posted and evacuates a few bubbles of air but Marie canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t expel all the airââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦. so when he is released he swims very erratic working his way to a staghorn.

We have put the lil fellow in a diamox isolation tank within the 30-gallon tank. We could also try a pouch flush in a few days if this doesnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t work.

Might you have any other ideas or suggestions?

Appreciate your comments please.
Jim

 

[DanU]

Jim can you give us full system parameters and description of your setup including filtration? Any recent changes? Can you post a picture?

If the gas is inside the abdomen and not just in the pouch then the Diamox bath would be indicated. I prefer to do this in a separate hospital tank and highly recommend doing so. Do you have directions for the Diamox?

One of the keys here is to try to find the trigger for the GBD. There are many suspected causes.

Dan

 

[jimfairchild]

Gas

Hi Dan,

Itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s so good to hear from you and trust you are wealthy and happy. Tanks for answering my post and sorry Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m late I have a reason.

Dan you ask for parameters so here goes.

Salt Instant Ocean:
I aerate 4 gallons of R/O water with Ã"šÃ‚½ cc of Prime for 24 hours or so then add Instant Ocean Salt to a S/G of 1.023.
We change 20% of the water every Sunday morn. Sunday is fasting day as the horses are pretty much fed Frozen Mysis Shrimp bid.
In the 10 gallon sump below the 29 high we have a very large bio-wheel packed with poly filter, Purigen, ChemiPure pillow and a small pillow of Seachems Matrix. Next to the bio-wheel we have a Remora Skimmer and next to that we employ a Mag Five pump with another Poly Filter wrapped around the intake nozzle.
On the front window we have a 150-watt Ebo-Jaeger heater set at 76.5. Then a Titanium probe grounded to our water heater in the next room.

On the tank we have an Orbit 24 hour lighting system with a CPR overflow.
The inhabitants are one scooter blenny, a skunk shrimp and one very shy goby,
we also have many Nassarius and Margarita Snails. We have a 3 inch sand bed in the 29 and about and 1 inch of sand in the sump. We have about 40 pounds of live rock in the 29 and 15 pounds of rock in the sump.

Tank Parameters: All tests with Salifert Kits.
Ph 8.04 adjusted prn with Seachems 8.3.
Temp 77.5
NO3 30 ppm
KH 8.0 in dKH
Alkalinity 2.86 meq/L
Mg. 1080 ppm
S/G 1.022
Ca 370 then added Seachemââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s Reef Compete and 12 hours later itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s 420.

Dan these Tank Parameters have been the same for the past 4 years.
Weââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve had a male and female Erectus for 4 years and the other pair for about 3 Ã"šÃ‚½ years.
Had a little problem with gas bubble early on but switched to a 25-inch high tank and since then. When Sonny developed his problem about 2 months ago.


OK.. Dan hereââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s the rest of the story.
The past two months Sonny has not been able to evacuate his pouch by himself. Then only when the girls went into their mating ritual did his pouch fill upââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ now it has been almost every other day when Marie burps him.

We put Sonny in an incubator, see picture, for the past day and Ã"šÃ‚½ until I realized the crushed Diamox tablet was 2 years old. So we took Sonny out and back into the main tank and dismantled the incubator. We were going to wait till Monday and get a scrip for a new Diamox tab but this morning we found Sonny dead.

Not quite sure what happened but think because of the burping and incubator stress plus his age might have been the culpritââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ What comes to your mind Dan?

Thank You,
Jim

Dan I'll send pics to your office.

 

[DanU]

Jim, Sorry to hear that he passed. I did receive the pics. Without a necropsy, we will never know for sure what the cause was. If he had pouch emphysema for this long it certainly would have contributed to an elevated stress level. I also suspect age could have played a factor, although we don't know what the average age can be for CB H. erectus.

I hope the rest of the herd continues to do well for you.

Dan