Sea horse help! Red on face and gills

[kevinn205]

Hey everyoney my sea horses look ill and have red on their face and gills does anyone know what it is? Will they be ok?

Here's the backstory, I've been having issues with my fish lately I lost two convict's then two clown fish just a few days apart

My water was 0 ammonia .25 nitrite and 0 nitrate 1.025 salinity was 80 degrees

I slowly water changes until 76 degrees and 0 nitrites

The clown fish lived about a month before abruptly down and had a whitish mucus look and small specs (I thought they were crushe'd coral before dying) after the second one died it seems to have no damage and normal color

The convict tangs really seemed to lose their color and had skin seem to flake off but I didn't see any parasites (I don't know what to look for)

Because of the nitrites I havent been feeding the sea horses for 4 days but I plan to start feeding again tommorow


I don't plan to get more fish until my aquarium is better cycled, next time I'm not going to overfeed them and will test nitrite from the bottom of the tank :/

As well are nitrites this lethal? Is that the most likely cause or could something else be devastating my tank?

 

[nutbar29]

First what you are saying about your fish that sounds like velvet. Second how long has your tank been setup because you shouldn't have nitrites in a fully cycled tank. Third it's not a good idea to not feed your seahorses they must eat at least 3 times a day.


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[nutbar29]

Also your temperature for a seahorse tank must be 69 - 74 degree if it's gets to 78 degrees they are more likely to get bacterial infections due to warmer water more bacteria.


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[nutbar29]

Oh also when red marking appear in the gills and face that is due to ammonia. It ammonia burn.


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[kevinn205]

The tank was cycled for over 7 weeks but I made the mistake of measuring the nitrites and nitrates from the bottom and overfed them, I also made the mistake of not washing their food; the ammonias always been 0 but I don't measure it 24/7 so there's definely the possibility it spiked

I'll turn the temp down to 74, as far as the ammonia is there anything I can do to treat it? Will he heal naturally? I have some api quick start I could put in to try to bind to it, does that seem like a good idea?

 

[kevinn205]

Sea horse red spots image

Sea horse red spots image

Here''s the image if it helps

 

[nutbar29]

As far as ammonia burn if it's that I would do a very large water change and if by any chance that it might be a bacterial infection you can soak some mysis shrimp with kanaplex and bind it with focus


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[nutbar29]

You can do a fresh water dip if he has flukes that should give him some relief for a day till you can get some medicine for treatment


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[kevinn205]

Sea horse freshwater dip

Sea horse freshwater dip

I tried fixing and stabalizing the ammonia and nitrates by water changes and binding agents and it had no effect;

Two days later I did a fresh water dip and the red dis-appeared within minutes, is there any specific follow up treatment's I should make? I presume it's parasites?

 

[nutbar29]

Formalin is use to get rid of flukes on seahorses used as a dip according to the manufacturer instructions


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[nutbar29]

http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/diseaseguide.shtml


This is from seahorse.org it talks about all the different things that can happen to seahorses and the treatment that will help. Good information to read


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[nutbar29]

These are my babies 2 males and 1 female

This is my 75g seahorse tank


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[vlangel]

These are my babies 2 males and 1 female

This is my 75g seahorse tank


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Wow, that is an enormous gorg on the left. Your ponies have a nice big tank with lots of hitches.

 

[nutbar29]

Wow, that is an enormous gorg on the left. Your ponies have a nice big tank with lots of hitches.

Thank you and yes they do have a big tank. I have a special tank for them being made 2'x2'x3' tall


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