Ok I have had a pair of erectus from OR (mustangs) for about six months. just recently, my male suddenly died withought warning. one day he was healthy, and eating and the next, he was liying in the sand dead. My female however is still alive, but Ive noticed she hasnt eaten in a long time! She never really ate much of what I fed them, but now she wont touch her food at all. I have a feeding station in which i put hikari mysis every day two times aday, and I have never seen her eat. I can even put it right in front of her and she acts like it dosnt exist. she is getting quite skinney, and I am worried. There is plenty of food in the tank without me feeding as I have TONS of large amphipods all over the glass,and copepods as well. But if she is eating them, why is she skinny? I dont know what to do. I have decided on upgrading my tank skimmer to an aqua C remora, and Im going to add more water flow as there is very little now. I am also going to get her another male Mustang. Will this help?
How can I get my horses to be more active and eat?
- Thread starter whatnot45
- Start date
Sun_Shining
New member
With nothing scientific to base it on other than a couple years of experience with most of the major species, she is "pining away".
We have rarely (like one) had any seahorse do well when it was housed by iteself. They are ususaly very social animals and when there was a pair bond, and one died, almost inevitably the surviving horse started declining, very soon.
I'd get her with a new horse and lots of live food as soon as you possibly can. JMO.
We have rarely (like one) had any seahorse do well when it was housed by iteself. They are ususaly very social animals and when there was a pair bond, and one died, almost inevitably the surviving horse started declining, very soon.
I'd get her with a new horse and lots of live food as soon as you possibly can. JMO.
Sun_Shining
New member
Are you going to order one or more than one... cause, if (and its only an if, trying to think ahead) she does not recover becasue its been too long, or whatever, if you order one, you will be in the same situation. I'd order two. Then you have a trio at best and a pair at worst.
that's what I'd do. JMO
that's what I'd do. JMO
pledosophy
Active member
I hope this is not to late, but it is possible your female is suffering from the same ailment that caused your males death.
One of the symptoms of vibrio is acute death.
There is a whole slew of things you could be facing here. I do not think it is prudent to add more speciments without first trying to identify the problem.
IME seahorses while social animals, do fine when housed on there own. I have kept a WC reidi alone for over a year and he is none the lesser for it.
IMHO it is a bad idea to add new seahorses into a tank with an existing problem. It could mean bad things for all.
If it were me I would move the seahorse in to a barebottom 10g or 20g ( I have a 20g in the garage ), with no LR, and she excatly how much she is or isn't eating.
It is best to be careful in these situations. I would wait at least 6 weeks before adding anything to the system. Just my .02
One of the symptoms of vibrio is acute death.
There is a whole slew of things you could be facing here. I do not think it is prudent to add more speciments without first trying to identify the problem.
IME seahorses while social animals, do fine when housed on there own. I have kept a WC reidi alone for over a year and he is none the lesser for it.
IMHO it is a bad idea to add new seahorses into a tank with an existing problem. It could mean bad things for all.
If it were me I would move the seahorse in to a barebottom 10g or 20g ( I have a 20g in the garage ), with no LR, and she excatly how much she is or isn't eating.
It is best to be careful in these situations. I would wait at least 6 weeks before adding anything to the system. Just my .02
1 year experience
1 year experience
I would try to get the one you have eating well before you get more make sure you do water changes. this really helps. Feed your horses live brine shrimp as they like to eat alot. Also feed them frozen brine shrimp they like it better then myis. I hope this helps.
1 year experience
I would try to get the one you have eating well before you get more make sure you do water changes. this really helps. Feed your horses live brine shrimp as they like to eat alot. Also feed them frozen brine shrimp they like it better then myis. I hope this helps.
Tons of pods in a tank that, until recently, hat two seahorses sounds like a disease issue to me.
Even though I feed mine twice a day, they constantly hunt in my tank. I see pods in my tank occasionally, but only in well protected areas.
Not having had any issues with my horses so far, I know nothing about seahorse diseases. Look carefully at your female. Are there any external signs of disease like discolouration, skin sloughing off, tail rot, etc?
Hopefully Dan or Lisa will post some suggestions.
Fred
Edit: How about giving us some info on your tank in the mean time? Temp, salinity, size, parameters you test for and readings, other tank mates if any...
Even though I feed mine twice a day, they constantly hunt in my tank. I see pods in my tank occasionally, but only in well protected areas.
Not having had any issues with my horses so far, I know nothing about seahorse diseases. Look carefully at your female. Are there any external signs of disease like discolouration, skin sloughing off, tail rot, etc?
Hopefully Dan or Lisa will post some suggestions.
Fred
Edit: How about giving us some info on your tank in the mean time? Temp, salinity, size, parameters you test for and readings, other tank mates if any...
DanU
New member
I too would hold off on adding more seahorses for the short term.
Have you been able to see the fe'ces from the female? If so, a description of it would help.
Kevin's suggestion of isolating her to a bare bottom quarantine would be our standard protocol in this instance. You can determine for sure if she is eating and what she is passing.
Dan
Have you been able to see the fe'ces from the female? If so, a description of it would help.
Kevin's suggestion of isolating her to a bare bottom quarantine would be our standard protocol in this instance. You can determine for sure if she is eating and what she is passing.
Dan
pledosophy
Active member
frozen mysis all the way
frozen mysis all the way
While enriched brine is better than not enriched brine, frozen mysis is recognized as the best frozen food availbale for seahorses.
There is also specualtion as to the ability of seahorses to be able to digest adult brine shrimp, I however to date have only heard speculation. Hopefully the facts whatever they may be will come out soon enough.
It is still a good idea to enrich your frozen foods with supplements including vitamins and immunostimulants such as beta glucan.
Mysis has a higher protein concentration, so IMHO it is better.
Truthfully I feed live fresh water host shrimp, so I am jealous of all of you that can feed your seahorses anything frozen. My guy runs away like the frozen shrimp are going to hurt him. Damm spoiled Reidi.
Kboyer, Welcome to reefcentral.
frozen mysis all the way
While enriched brine is better than not enriched brine, frozen mysis is recognized as the best frozen food availbale for seahorses.
There is also specualtion as to the ability of seahorses to be able to digest adult brine shrimp, I however to date have only heard speculation. Hopefully the facts whatever they may be will come out soon enough.
It is still a good idea to enrich your frozen foods with supplements including vitamins and immunostimulants such as beta glucan.
Mysis has a higher protein concentration, so IMHO it is better.
Truthfully I feed live fresh water host shrimp, so I am jealous of all of you that can feed your seahorses anything frozen. My guy runs away like the frozen shrimp are going to hurt him. Damm spoiled Reidi.
Kboyer, Welcome to reefcentral.
Swanwillow
goby girl
Re: How can I get my horses to be more active and eat?
6 months is not a long time, and something was wrong with the male if he just up and died like you said. If she wasn't really eating in the first place, shes eating SOMETHING cause shes still alive. BUT, you need her to eat something of substance. set up a ten gallon tank, bare bottom, with hitching posts. only have a filter on low, and TRAIN HER TO EAT frozen. also, if she IS sick with something, it will show better in a QT tank than in the main display tank.
and seahorses are LOW FLOW TYPE ANIMALS do NOT increase the flow, just because you think its too little. how big of a tank do you have? what do you have for flow in there now?
6 months is not a long time, and something was wrong with the male if he just up and died like you said. If she wasn't really eating in the first place, shes eating SOMETHING cause shes still alive. BUT, you need her to eat something of substance. set up a ten gallon tank, bare bottom, with hitching posts. only have a filter on low, and TRAIN HER TO EAT frozen. also, if she IS sick with something, it will show better in a QT tank than in the main display tank.
and seahorses are LOW FLOW TYPE ANIMALS do NOT increase the flow, just because you think its too little. how big of a tank do you have? what do you have for flow in there now?
My tank is a 29 gall, and the only flo in it is from my Skilter filter and refugium. (my refugium does like 75gph) And im getting rid of my skilter to replace it with an Aqua C remora. which i think has less flo than the skilter. I am getting a wave making power head that is 160 GPH i will make sure though to have at least half of the tank with low flo so the horses can retreat to when they are tired. there are plenty of hitching posts all arround, so they dont have to swim a lot. I am only getting the extra flo for the SPS corals i put in today. Everything is ordered, and the 3 seahorses got here today!! OR upgraded my order for FREE!! IM SOO HAPPY!! lol I ordered a pair of mustangs, and a single male mustang and they gave me SUNBURSTS!! at no extra charge! All of the horses are happy, and swimming arround their new home. My surviving female has started to change colors a little bit and is watching the others. At one point, both new males were clinging to her at the same time. She is quite a bit bigger than they are, but the new ones are just juvaniles. Any way all is well. Im going to try feeding them later tonight.
Swanwillow
goby girl
and now, since you aren't doing quarentines, they are now infected with whatever your male died from.congrats...
Sun_Shining
New member
Assuming that the animals were sick in the first place.
Sun_Shining
New member
whatnot, I would suggest at this point that you make it a point to introduce some live food, either ghost shrimp or red shrimp. Now that the animals are all together, and the female is acting more interested in life, give them some moving, tasty food to eat. you can worry about frozen later.
Yes I will I have gave them some yesterday, and they din notice it. Ill try again today though. However, I dont wanna use all my red shrimp because I need some to be clean up crew in my dwarf seahorse tank. But ill take a few more out. I have a ton of them, in a 5 gallon tank, but that was the tank I put my sick seahorse in just before he died. =( so im guessing I cant use those. If I were to run UV on that tank for a few days would I be able to use them again?
