Male Ora kuda not eating

[sedorusc]

I received a pair of Ora h. Kuda on Tuesday from liveaquaria. The female has been readily eating right along. I've seen the male eat once on Tuesday and spit the food out. I have tried adding garlic to the thawed mysis shrimp without better results. I try to spot feed and he turns away. He also seems to be having labored breathing compared to the female. I notice some whitening around his mouth. I contacted live aquaria and the response was possible bacteria and to try api marine Melafix.

Tank parameters are within normal limits. Temp is maintained at 72.

I'll try to add some pics of the mouth. Just remember these are from an iPhone so poor quality.

 

[rayjay]

Try some live food to see if you can entice it to eat. live mysids, ghost or even adult brine if you can find it.

 

[sedorusc]

I stopped at the lfs today and they don't carry. I'm going to have to order online or try to grow out some shrimp. Best place to get it fast?

 

[sedorusc]

Also is that freshwater ghost shrimp?

 

[rayjay]

Freshwater ghost shrimp will live long enough for seahorses to hunt them down and snick them up. Try to get the smaller sized ones though to be more likely to be snicked.
I can't help you on sourcing though as I'm in Canada.

 

[pfan151]

This company sells live brine and saltwater ghost shrimp. I've bought brine from them. They arrived in good shape and some are still alive now (about 3 weeks since I ordered them). I just put in an order for the saltwater shrimp today.

http://www.livebrineshrimp.com

 

[Ron Popeil]

what type of mysis are you using? when i spoke to ORA in the past they were using Hikari frozen mysis.

 

[sedorusc]

I bought a package of elive from petco. Not many more options other than San Francisco Bay brand in my area

 

[Jade5051]

Take a look on Amazon.

 

[ThRoewer]

Another option would be live freshwater fish like livebearers. Ideally you would breed them yourself.

 

[sedorusc]

No luck on the ghost shrimp. Female was chasing them around.

 

[DanU]

First, I would not use Melafix with seahorses. Folks have had issues using it since seahorses have a different gill structure than regular fish.

I would try a FW dip first. A minimum of 8 minutes. If the seahorses reacts negatively to the dip by thrashing or becoming irritated, then extend it to 12 minutes. This means the dip is working. The other choice would be a formalin dip or bath. The FW dip has the advantage of not only being therapeutic but also a diagnostic type of test. If it reacts to the dip, then you know there is a parasitic issue. If it doesn't, then one can assume it is bacterial and treat accordingly.

Dan

 

[sedorusc]

Had his fw dip today. No thrashing or irritation during the dip. Probably bacterial at this point. What do you guys treat with? Just irritated he arrived like this.

 

[DanU]

My first choice would be Furan 2. It is generally available locally and is used by both fresh and saltwater. It is normally as effective as any other over the counter antibiotic for seahorses.

The label directions are different than what the org recommends and how we have used it. My favorite way is to use a combination of bath therapy and gut loading it. Since he is not eating, bath therapy would be the way to go.

This should be done in a separate hospital tank. A bare bottom 10 gal tank is ideal. A 5 can be used but cut the dose in half. The tank should have something for him to hitch to and an airline or small pump for circulation. No biofilter. I also recommend covering 3 sides of the tank with something, cardboard, towel or what ever. This serves two purposes, first it makes the seahorses feel more secure and comfortable since he can't see out all sides and secondly helps block extra light as UV light deactivates most antibiotics.

On the first day, add 1 packet of the Furan 2. The next day and each day following for a total of 10 days do a 50% water change and add 1/2 packet to the tank. In essence you are replacing the medication taken out by the water change. The water change is to keep the ammonia levels at bay.

NOTE: If you have any allergies to Nitrofurans, you should wear gloves and avoid contact. I have seen allergergic reactions from skin absorption.

I would continue to try to feed him. The drop of garlic sometimes helps.

If possible, a couple of full profile pics would be helpful to see his body condition and weight loss.

Dan

 

[sedorusc]

Qt is up and running. No furan-2 in stock locally. Waiting for it to come in from Amazon.