I have a pair of captive bred reidi seahorse that I have had for about 4 months. They had both been doing great and eating at every feeding, but since last week I have not seen the male eat. I'm feeding a mix of Hykari and PE mysis. The male is interested in the food and chases it, but never eats it. It's not that he can't catch it, because he follows the food and just sits and watches it. He's starting to get very skinny and I don't know what to do. Should I try some live brine?
Seahorse Not Eating
- Thread starter Brian77
- Start date
I agree with putting it in quarantine if it hasn't been pregnant before. As it doesn't take too long for some of them to shut down and not eat again, it's not worth the risk IMO.
All it takes is a small tank, barebottom, so you can check for excrement to know if it is eating, and put in mysis, piece by piece, keeping count, to see if they all remain on the bottom or if it is eating some.
You don't need filtration but you need an airline for motion and you need to change about 50% of the water daily until he goes back into the display tank.
Usually when a reidi is pregnant, he pretty well goes into seclusion, with little swimming around, and will eat a bit less as the time period goes on.
If it hasn't been pregnant before, then it's a good chance something is wrong but hopefully it may only be a minor problem.
For feeding the live brine, it would be advisable to gut load it for at least an hour before.
If you don't have Selco or another enrichment, you could at least take a quality flake food, preferably spirulina, and put some in a blender with water and blend for two minutes. Then add enough to the brine shrimp enrichment container to colour the water a definite green.
All it takes is a small tank, barebottom, so you can check for excrement to know if it is eating, and put in mysis, piece by piece, keeping count, to see if they all remain on the bottom or if it is eating some.
You don't need filtration but you need an airline for motion and you need to change about 50% of the water daily until he goes back into the display tank.
Usually when a reidi is pregnant, he pretty well goes into seclusion, with little swimming around, and will eat a bit less as the time period goes on.
If it hasn't been pregnant before, then it's a good chance something is wrong but hopefully it may only be a minor problem.
For feeding the live brine, it would be advisable to gut load it for at least an hour before.
If you don't have Selco or another enrichment, you could at least take a quality flake food, preferably spirulina, and put some in a blender with water and blend for two minutes. Then add enough to the brine shrimp enrichment container to colour the water a definite green.
This will be the second time the male is pregnant and I'm hoping for the best.
Both horses were in a QT tank undergoing a hyposalinity treatment for 6 weeks as my display tank was recovering from ICH. The male was still eating during the treatment but started eating less the last few days in QT. I was hoping that he would start eating more once he got into the display tank since there was an abundance of pods...but he has been in the display tank for over a week and he seems to have stopped eating now.
Luckily I still have the QT tank setup so I will move him back and give the gut loaded brine shrimp a shot. Is there anything else I need to know regarding the gut loading. Blend the flakes with some water and pour the bring into that water for an hour and then move them into the tank. Do i need to rinse them or anything like that?
Both horses were in a QT tank undergoing a hyposalinity treatment for 6 weeks as my display tank was recovering from ICH. The male was still eating during the treatment but started eating less the last few days in QT. I was hoping that he would start eating more once he got into the display tank since there was an abundance of pods...but he has been in the display tank for over a week and he seems to have stopped eating now.
Luckily I still have the QT tank setup so I will move him back and give the gut loaded brine shrimp a shot. Is there anything else I need to know regarding the gut loading. Blend the flakes with some water and pour the bring into that water for an hour and then move them into the tank. Do i need to rinse them or anything like that?
For gut loading adult brine shrimp, I use inverted two litre bottles with salt water in them, and add enough of whatever you are blending up to colour the water. If it is spirulina, the enrichment container should show definite green colour but if using something else, it should at least show a definite colour of beige or whatever the original colour is.
Ad an open ended air line, no stone, to keep the enrichment water in motion so the food doesn't settle. If the water clears, add more enrichment.
After a minimum one hour, pour the brine through a mesh or net and rinse the shrimp in tap water before feeding them to the horse.
Gut loading for adults and juveniles takes about an hour to an hour and a half. (2 day old nauplii take 24 hours to gut load, doing it in two stages, with new water and enrichment after the first 12 hours)
Ad an open ended air line, no stone, to keep the enrichment water in motion so the food doesn't settle. If the water clears, add more enrichment.
After a minimum one hour, pour the brine through a mesh or net and rinse the shrimp in tap water before feeding them to the horse.
Gut loading for adults and juveniles takes about an hour to an hour and a half. (2 day old nauplii take 24 hours to gut load, doing it in two stages, with new water and enrichment after the first 12 hours)
So I fed the gut loaded shrimp to the horses last night. The male went after them but still didn't eat. However it looked like he was struggling to snick and he just couldn't do it. Following some advice I had been previously given, I gave him a fresh water dip this afternoon. He thrashed around quite a bit for a while so I'm guessing he had some sort of parasite. I've returned him to the tank and I'm going to give him a chance to rest before I attempt to feed him some more gut loaded brine.
Anyone else have any advice if he still can't snick properly? It looks like he's doing the correct motions, but just can't do it powerfully enough to suck in food.
Wish me luck...
Anyone else have any advice if he still can't snick properly? It looks like he's doing the correct motions, but just can't do it powerfully enough to suck in food.
Wish me luck...
I left him in for about 15 minutes...he was really thrashing around at first, but by the end he was nice and calm. From what I've read that seems to be their reaction to the parasites dieing...let's hope that did the trick. I will be feeding the live brine shrimp shortly and will let you know how it goes.
fingers crossed.
fingers crossed.
Victoryx0x0
New member
hey any update brian??
The Reef Expert
New member
Live mysids! I can give you good suppliers (cheap too) if interested.
I am no seahorse expert - but I have been experiencing a similar problem with my barbouri female - she went 4 days without eating a single thing. it wasnt that she wasnt interested, she just had no suction or 'snick'. i started by introducing live brine - apparantly this is smaller, and softer than the mysis i feed. However, these little guys literally swam back out of her mouth.
following parasite, and fungal treatment, and when i reached the point where i thought things could get no worse - i gave her a freshwater to dip - to which she did not thrash around or sink (hence why i am lead to believe this is not a parasitic problem) however she did seem to look more hydrated or 'padded out'. I then placed her back into a bag of tank water and put some small brine(from frozen) into the bag. this seemed to really help as even with a very weak snick, she was able to get about 12 in the end (I was so happy)
i was prepared to feed her in a bag for a while if i had to - considerin she showed no signs of ill health, distress, laboured breathing etc. I am lead to believe that she may have a mechanical injury, which will heal in time. As she does have some control of her trigger, and therefore some snick I am hoping that if i can keep her fed over the comin weak, her snick will come back.
I have been through absolute hell over the last few days, watching my poor seahorse try so hard to eat. I do believe feeding in a bag, and just swirling the food with my finger made all the difference and would recommend before considering tube feeding etc.
following parasite, and fungal treatment, and when i reached the point where i thought things could get no worse - i gave her a freshwater to dip - to which she did not thrash around or sink (hence why i am lead to believe this is not a parasitic problem) however she did seem to look more hydrated or 'padded out'. I then placed her back into a bag of tank water and put some small brine(from frozen) into the bag. this seemed to really help as even with a very weak snick, she was able to get about 12 in the end (I was so happy)
i was prepared to feed her in a bag for a while if i had to - considerin she showed no signs of ill health, distress, laboured breathing etc. I am lead to believe that she may have a mechanical injury, which will heal in time. As she does have some control of her trigger, and therefore some snick I am hoping that if i can keep her fed over the comin weak, her snick will come back.
I have been through absolute hell over the last few days, watching my poor seahorse try so hard to eat. I do believe feeding in a bag, and just swirling the food with my finger made all the difference and would recommend before considering tube feeding etc.
TamiW
Seahorse Wrangler
I've dealt with weak snick three separate times with two different seahorses over the past year, and they both recovered fine eventually after some TLC. In both cases I had to resort to tube feeding, though in one case I only needed to do it twice, where the other it was a week and a half of ongoing tube feeding, and well over a month of recovery time where I was watching closely and offering very small mysis (I bought several packs of hikari to find the smallest), live mysis, and live brine shrimp.
It took a long time for them to recover completely, so don't lose hope. The important thing is to keep them eating. Sach's aquaculture has small quantities of mysis for pretty cheap. And if you do resort to tube feeding, be sure to keep them in a bare bottom tank or net breeder, or similar so you can monitor their poop. Its the only way you'll know how much their getting (it won't be a lot). I would do this anyway even if they're eating a little so you can get an idea of just how much they've managed to get down.
It took a long time for them to recover completely, so don't lose hope. The important thing is to keep them eating. Sach's aquaculture has small quantities of mysis for pretty cheap. And if you do resort to tube feeding, be sure to keep them in a bare bottom tank or net breeder, or similar so you can monitor their poop. Its the only way you'll know how much their getting (it won't be a lot). I would do this anyway even if they're eating a little so you can get an idea of just how much they've managed to get down.
OzKat
New member
Hi all.
One of my Barbouri girls has stopped eating anything at all. She is just curled up in the net separator we have put in our main tank. Yesterday she was having trouble snicking, but today she does not even try. She has live brine in with her at the moment, but will not uncurl. We also tried the freshwater dunk yesterday, but she only sat at the bottom, She did not thrash around at all. So i'm guessing it is not parasites. She used to eat the most out of all the fish in the tank, then stopped over the last couple of days??? Can anyone give me any ideas on how to get her to even start trying to eat again? Or is it too late?
One of my Barbouri girls has stopped eating anything at all. She is just curled up in the net separator we have put in our main tank. Yesterday she was having trouble snicking, but today she does not even try. She has live brine in with her at the moment, but will not uncurl. We also tried the freshwater dunk yesterday, but she only sat at the bottom, She did not thrash around at all. So i'm guessing it is not parasites. She used to eat the most out of all the fish in the tank, then stopped over the last couple of days??? Can anyone give me any ideas on how to get her to even start trying to eat again? Or is it too late?
TamiW
Seahorse Wrangler
The cause of weak snick is unclear, and its likely caused by many things, not limited to parasites, but anything that might damage the trigger mechanism. A piece of sand or rock could do the same. In my last go around, I believe it was physical damage, because force feeding and time were what it took to solve the problem; I did not treat for parasites.
Based on what you've described, I would start tube feeding if it was my horse. However, that's something only you can decide and there is some potential risk to it. I've never actually had a problem with the procedure itself, but it is always possible.
I wrote up a detailed explanation of force feeding here:
http://www.fusedjaw.com/advancedcare/instructions-on-sedating-force-feeding-and-cpr-for-seahorses/3/
You may also want to read page one and two which covers basic equipment and sedation techniques. I also advocated using clove oil, which I still use, but if you can get your hands on ms-222 (finquil) it's a better sedative.
If you don't go the tube feeding route, I'd try getting some live mysis asap. A lot of seahorses just refuse live brine. Its not natural for them, and it doesn't trigger the right response. IME, H. comes rarely takes live brine, no matter how healthy they are. I've seen H. reidi refuse it too, thought that's more 50/50. You'll likely have to order the mysis, SeahorseSource has it, as does Sach's aquaculture store. If you get lucky, you may be able to find it in the refugium of a local reefer or the live rock tank or refugium at a fish store.
Based on what you've described, I would start tube feeding if it was my horse. However, that's something only you can decide and there is some potential risk to it. I've never actually had a problem with the procedure itself, but it is always possible.
I wrote up a detailed explanation of force feeding here:
http://www.fusedjaw.com/advancedcare/instructions-on-sedating-force-feeding-and-cpr-for-seahorses/3/
You may also want to read page one and two which covers basic equipment and sedation techniques. I also advocated using clove oil, which I still use, but if you can get your hands on ms-222 (finquil) it's a better sedative.
If you don't go the tube feeding route, I'd try getting some live mysis asap. A lot of seahorses just refuse live brine. Its not natural for them, and it doesn't trigger the right response. IME, H. comes rarely takes live brine, no matter how healthy they are. I've seen H. reidi refuse it too, thought that's more 50/50. You'll likely have to order the mysis, SeahorseSource has it, as does Sach's aquaculture store. If you get lucky, you may be able to find it in the refugium of a local reefer or the live rock tank or refugium at a fish store.
