should I put her in a QT tank?

N

nickyblase

New member
I've got 3 female reidi's that I've had for about 5 months. They're in a 65G mixed tank with a handful of other fish (neon gobies, mandarin, pipefish, lawnmower blenny, copperband butterfly).

One of the 3 horses hasn't eaten in 3 days and I'm getting worried. I cannot find any signs of rot/infection, etc.

The params are:
temp 77
amm, trite: 0
nitrate: less than 5
ph 8.2
SG 1.025

She's lost her coloration too - used to be black, now she's just black on her spine. She looks very thin and isn't interested in feeding even when I turkey baste mysis right in her direction (which I never had to do before - all 3 of them were always little pigs).

The only thing I can think of is that the lawnmower blenny has been out in front lately at the front glass, making some pretty quick movements around the horses. Doesn't seem to bother the other 2, but....

I am thinking about setting up my 10G as a QT/hospital tank and putting her in there to see if the quiet will help her to feed again and get back to normal.

Your thoughts? Thanks!
 
If it was me I would pull her and put her in a bare bottom hospital tank. try to lower the temp into the low 70's. No filter just a airline in case you need to medicate and a hitch.

What meds do you have on hand.

In my experiance if they stop eating they are sick. Out ward signs are not always there.

If she hasn't eaten in three days you may need to force feed her. I will try to post a link to the instructions for you.
 
I agree with jojon60. By description, there could be one or more of several things going on. It could be an internal bacterial infection or parasite(s) or a high protozoan load within the oral cavity. The latter is the easiest to correct but I usually expect to see some increased respirations or weak snick. Not always though. To treat for this, do a 8 to 10 minute FW dip. Water should be of the same temperature and ph as the tank. If there is a high parasite load, the seahorse will thrash about. If there isn't, it should just kind of hang out during the dip. When this works, they usually resume eating in about 24 hours. In any case, this is not an invasive treatment and you can still get your meds in order if you need to go the antibiotic route.

Dan
 
great idea - thank you. I will try a fw dip first and see what happens. Then I will put her in her own tank for a while and see how she recovers.
 
just did it, and she's actually gained some of her color back already. Don't know if that's any good sign or not, but.... I'm hoping it is!

Should I try to feed her, or do you think there's no point since she's probably in shock from the fw dip? It's going on 4-5 days that she hasn't eaten. I think I'll put a few pieces of mysis in and see if she goes for it.

keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Nicky. Can you get hold of any live food for her? Something like grass shrimp or even amphipods from someone's refugium?

This may get her feeding again.

Fred
 
I'll try. She's tank raised, so she's never had to chase after live food before. Would that be a problem?

I could probably pull some chaeto from my fuge and put it in QT with her. The fuge is attached to the tank she was in though, so I'm not sure if that would introduce back to her what may have been the problem in the first place.
 
If there are ampipods in your system, she knows about them and has fed on them. :D Horses, captive bred and otherwise, have a strong preference for live food.

Good point about possibly reintroducing the pathogen. What you could do is pull some chaeto and rinse it into a small bucket or jar and then strain the water through a fine net and dump the pods into the quarantine tank. I always 'rinse' algae I pull from the fuge in the main tank before throwing it away. I can get 10 - 20 pods from a good handfull of macro

Fred
 
put some in there. She didn't make a move toward it yet. We'll see what happens. I may end up having to order some live food, since every LFS in my area is closed on Monday's. That is if they even had any live food.

Hopefully 2 days isn't too late.
 
I would try feeding her. If this is from a build up of protozoa, it may be tomorrow before she will try to eat. I would offer her frozen and as Fred suggested, live food, if available. Captive bred seahorses will go after live food. Instinct will kick in.

Keep a close eye on her. If she doesn't begin to eat tomorrow, you may have to consider other treatments and the possibility of tube feeding. Hopefully, you will not need to.

Dan
 
I pulled her out the other day, have her in QT,and got some live food. I didn't see her eating any, but there is definitely less in there than I originally dumped in, so hopefully that's a good thing.

At this point I think it may be my blenny, so when I get home tonight, if she's looking any better and like she doesn't need any meds, I may pull the other 2 ponies out and put them into the 10G QT for a short while to chill out amongst themselves while I pull the blenny out.

By the way - since she doesn't have any outward signs of infection, and just looks mottled in color and is thin, how would I know if I should give her any meds? I've got on hand:
Formalin
Malachite Green
Methlyn Blue
and Maracyn two (sp?)
 
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