Hitch hiker seahorse

2

2crazyreefers

New member
The title says it. I got a hitch hiker seahorse with a coral shipment today. Although my wife recently (3 months ago) set up a horse tank, this one is different. It is much larger and kinda light brown goldish in color. Any suggestions would be appreciated for the care of this new addition. Thanks
 
Wow a hitch-hiker seahorse. I wish I got that lucky. How did the supplier miss that? I assume since you said it's larger that it's not a dwarf seahorse. Do you have any pics? What part of the world did this coral come from. Might help to determine what species you have.

I'm assuming this is a wild caught horse so I doubt it'll take frozen food. So 1st thing is finding live food for it. Ghost shrimp or live mysis would be best. For the sort term you can feed it enriched adult brine shrimp but they won't provide good nutrition over the long term. Once you get it eating and recovered from the stress of shipping you can try to train it over to frozen.

Also as a wild seahorse you need to be careful of the horse carying parasites. You can do a freshwater dip and then deworm it. I'd get it in a QT tank and get it eating 1st. Then you can worry about medicating for parasites.
 
I believe these corals came from solomon islands. I will get some ghost shrimp ASAP. I think we already messed up because we put him with our other 4 already. I do not have a camera to take pics but will try to get a friend over with a camera. Although I often read these threads lately I should have posted earlier before we put them together. Hope we don't hurt them. Thank for the help.
 
Was this seahorse a hitchhiker (meaning it came in on something that the supplier did not mean to do) or did the supplier accidentally include it in your shipment? Most suppliers (unless you are an LFS) don't dive, then immediately sell. The seahorse would have swam little bit from the coral...
 
Big mistake putting it in with your other horses without a quarantine period. I can only hope that it will work out at this point.

Bruce
 
Well let's hope you luck out and didn't introduce any disease or parasites into your seahorse tank and infect the other horses.

I'd keep a close eye on the horses, watch how they're eating, look for early signs of infection.

I haven't had seahorses long so I'm not the best one to give advise on treating them. Hopefully you won't need to worry about it. Maybe others will chime in with advise on what to do now.

If it was me I'd still pull the new horse out of the tank and put him in QT. You can keep a closer eye on him there and be ready to treat if you need to. Or maybe that's just closing the barn door after the horse got out?
 
This was a real hitch hiker. its eating frozen mysid with the others and my wife fed her gohst shrimp today. She is acting just like the others, so far so good.
 
Hate to say it, but the future is probably not good for her, or the other horses. Especially if they are different species. If it was "a real hitchhiker" it probably was not fed at the supplier, so it will probably be under a considerable amount of stress. Although, getting her to eat is the first step, and an impressive hurdle to overcome.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8227325#post8227325 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 2crazyreefers
This was a real hitch hiker. its eating frozen mysid with the others and my wife fed her gohst shrimp today. She is acting just like the others, so far so good.
Click to expand...

That's amazing that a little wild caught is eating frozen. Good luck with them, hope it works out.
 
Can we get a pic of the hitchiker seahorse and your other seahorses for ID purpose.

A good clear profile would be great. A close up profile of the head and cornet would also be very helpful.

I would slowly lower your tank temp to 70F and begin to supplement all the seahorse food with beta glucan. I would also order some Neo3 as a precaution. It is just a good thing to have on hand. Available to aquabiotics.net or seahorsesource.com

A fresh water dip of matched temp and PH would still be good for the new seahorse. Would help to kill parasites. Usually it is recommended that WC's under go a prophylatic treatment of prazipro and fenbendazole as well. Parasites arev ery common with horses (admittedly I do not know what the ratio is for that area) and a good precautionary step might help the horse to live years beyond what it normally would have.

I don't want to be a downer. I think it is great you got a new seahorse. I just want to help prepare you for succsess, it's something that takes planning.
 
Thank you for all the info. This is my wifes set-up which I will show her the post when she gets home. I am trying to get a friend over with a camera. I really want to show a pic of this horse. Looks like we got much to learn. Although we seem to do well with corals and fish horses are new to us.
 
here is a pic of the sneaky stow-away



75748seahorse.jpg
 
Adorable little stowaway.....I'm thinking H. barbouri....but maybe a lil kuda....The gallery at Seahorse.org is pretty good.....Best of luck!
 
It is not a barb. My best guess would be reidi, could be kuda, a closer profile shot would be better for ID.

The coloration on the snout is worrisome, looks like snout rot a bit. Is it just the pic or is it like that?
 
In the second pic, she (as it is a female, or possibly a juvie) looks very thin, and I agree with Pledosophy, the snout coloration makes me think that diseases have indeed spread. Yeah, too smooth for a barb. I'm thinking Kuda.
 
I think it is absolutely amazing that a seahorse survived the trip with rock (usually shipped out of water).

Hope it survives.

Fred
 
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