Replacing Seahorse

[laga77]

I just lost my male H. Erectus after 20 months. This was my first non-mechanical issue death in one of my tanks in over 4 years. He battled GBD 3-4 times in that period while the female never had it. The pair mated at least 6-7 times in the past, but I never saw any babies in the tank. I would like to replace him and wondered if there would be any problems with trying to replace a partner to a mated pair. Do I need to wait a certain amount of time or get one right away?

 

[nutbar29]

You can get another one but sometimes they will never pair up and mate. Sometimes they do you just never know.


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[DanU]

Replacing a mate should not be an issue. We often see seahorses mate with different partners. I would however wait just a bit before replacing it to make sure whatever is going on has settled down. It would suck to get a replacement and then have another loss.

If you were having persistent GBD issues, something is off in the tank. Whoever you are planning on getting the seahorses from, I would review your setup and let them help trouble shoot it so you don't keep having that issue.

Dan

 

[rayjay]

Speaking only for my own experiences with GBD, it almost always boiled down to insufficient tank cleaning leading to a lesser water quality. There are NO test kits available to the hobby that can tell you when this is happening so it needs to be a proactive step rather than a reactive one after the occurrence.

 

[StAiden]

Question for all, related to this thread (this is not a hi jack!). If you loose one half of a pair, and want to add a second sea horse back in to the tank, is there not an issue also about the new one coming in with different bacteria or fauna that is potentially fatal to the original sea horse in the tank?
How do you ensure the new sea horse isn't carrying any pathogens that could kill the tank mate? Or how do you treat the new one before adding it to the tank?

 

[rayjay]

In the seahorse hobby, there are NO guarantees, but the best chances of success with replacing a lost seahorse is to get one from the same source you got the originals from.
Same breeder, same tank system at LFS if so, and the pathogens will most likely be the same as the originals.

 

[StAiden]

In the seahorse hobby, there are NO guarantees, but the best chances of success with replacing a lost seahorse is to get one from the same source you got the originals from.
Same breeder, same tank system at LFS if so, and the pathogens will most likely be the same as the originals.

Is there a way of quarantining or treating a new sea horse to make the introduction into an existing system (with a population from a different source) more successful? What protocol would you use or what drugs would you suggest for the quarantine?

 

[rayjay]

I've not been successful at it in my early years, and have not ever tried again in the last decade, so I'm no help to you there.
I read a post about someone using the complete deworming protocol and being successful but that was a few years ago and don't remember if the post was here or on the org.

 

[nutbar29]

I don't medicated any seahorses unless it is needed. When I purchase a new seahorse I keep him in a separate tank just for observation and I gut load live adult brine shrimp and I also soak mysis shrimp to make sure that the seahorse is fat and healthy after a couple of weeks if no signs of infection appear I will put in DT. I have treated one seahorse with kanamycin cuz she burned herself with the heater but she did good. I did remove the heater from the tank after this.


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[rayjay]

Most hobbyists don't have a problem with replacement because they buy from the same source the originals were bought from and most stores are pretty consistent with their sources.

 

[vlangel]

I bought my first pair of seahorses from Ocean Rider and my subsequent seahorses from Seahorse Source when I upgraded my tank. Both of those are reputable seahorse farms that have been raising captive bred seahorses for a long time. I still have my original OR female and it has not been a problem. All the seahorses are H.erectus which is a sturdy specie.

I have read that doing bigger than even the usual large water changes helps when mixing sources and I do that.
I also QT new ponies to make sure that they recover from shipping stress and are eating well before I put them in my DT.