HELP!!! Upside Down Seahorse

[Mr. Fish]

I got two CB kuda seahorses Friday from saltwaterfish.com. They were supposedly eating frozen mysis, but I have been feeding them live brine since they weren't that interested in the frozen mysis.

They are nice and fat and eat multiple times a day, but when I fed them today one of them left it's plant and started swimming upside down and floated to the top. It still managed to get a full meal of brine shrimp and is now hanging back on its favorite plant. But anytime it swims off the plant it flips upside down and starts to float.

I've read that it could be a trapped air bubble. But the seahorse is pretty small, do juveniles even have a pouch that can trap air?

Please help!

 

[rayjay]

Diamox is treatment of choice and it normally has to come from a vet.
Best guess would be INTERNAL gas bubble disease that some get, usually associated with water quality.
However, since you haven't had the seahorse for long, it probably started when in the dealers tank.
Try to get them to replace it Free of charge.
In the meantime, place it in quarantine tank with all new water matched to pH, s.g. and temperature of display tank. Lower the temperature to 20°C, changing 50% of the water daily. This may be enough after 4 to 7 days, without the Diamox which I'm sure you will have problems finding if you haven't already got a source for it.

 

[Mr. Fish]

Seahorse is fine and back to normal today! What ever it was, he fixed it himself.

 

[gnu]

I had something similar happen. Mine were shipped USPS, and mishandled. I saw the lady behind the counter flip the box upside down, and even after I stopped her and explained what was in the box, she did it again (but slower)!! I guess there was a code or something on the bottom of the box. Long story short, my poor SH got a big gulp of air. After a few days she was able to expel it and has been the picture of health since.