mysterious seahorses death

[gtstylez87]

I have a friend whos seahorse died for no apparent reason. it was eating (ghost shrimp) and she said that it died sometime during the night. she that when she found it that the body looked normal except for a red spot on the abdomen and she said that it looked like the spot came from the inside out. i dont know what it could be. this is all the information i could get and i cant get anymore. any ideas???

 

[pledosophy]

Really hard to say for certain without more information.

 

[rayjay]

Over the years, I've had a couple that died that way also.
The latest was an erectus just a couple of days ago.
When there is no sign of water problem, and no visible signs on the body, there is not much anyone can tell you.
This erectus was completely normal at lights out but in the AM, she was dead on the bottom.
The red spot on the abdomen of yours may have been a post mortem result.

 

[TamiW]

I've lost two seahorses that I know of to eating bristle worms. If I had not witnessed them eating the worms I would have woke up to a mystery death. It got me wondering if this may happen more than people know. I've had seahorses be fine one minute and dead a few hours later. I'm not suggesting that is the only possible cause (fish certainly do die for a number of reasons), it is interesting to consider.

But before looking to illness or an abnormal cause, knowing the water parameters and husbandry (how much the tank was cleaned, how often the seahorse fed) would be useful.

 

[rayjay]

For me, I have no bristleworms in any of my seahorse tanks.
Sure have a lot in my reef tanks though but I like them in those tanks.

 

[Jaguar]

Was your friend gutloading her ghost shrimp? Ghost shrimp aren't nutritionally complete diet for a seahorse. If she wasn't it could possibly have been malnutrition.

 

[namxas]

i suspect that since the SH was eating ghosties, the fish in question was either one of the "tank raised" fish offered at the LFS or a WC specimen. if this is the case, and it wasn't treated prophylactically upon acquisition, the SH likely succumbed to a bacterial or parasitic infection.

if the SH was kept above 74*F, this may have sped things along.

hard to guess unless we have some history on the SH.

 

[pledosophy]

Was your friend gutloading her ghost shrimp? Ghost shrimp aren't nutritionally complete diet for a seahorse. If she wasn't it could possibly have been malnutrition.

This is not accurate IME.

 

[rayjay]

Yes, ghost shrimp nutrition is fine. Gut loading just makes it better.