Sick pony

[CrayolaViolence]

While there is nothing visually wrong with the seahorse I can tell by the way it's acting it is very, very ill. I have five sea horses in a 90 gallon macro algae tank. They have all been doing well. Inhabitants are one damsel 2 lyre tail anthias, a leopard wrasse a malunarus wrasse, 1 coral banded shrimp, about 50+ nassarisus snails, 20 blue leg hermits, 20-30 astea, one cleaner shrimp, one blood red shrimp. This tank is very dense with macro algae. It has low/moderate current from a wave maker at one end and a return line at the other. Temp is 74-76 degrees. Salinity is 1.024 Ammonia 0 DKH 8 to 9 depending on the day, PH 8.1-8.2. I don't normally test nitrates on this tank because it's always high due to feeding habits, but when I do test its generally .5
This is a very low key tank and the ponies have been doing great, eating well, etc. The pony that sick is hitching to the gorgonians but it curls up and lays it's head on the bottom of the tank or tucks it close to it's chest. It will not eat but has been eating in the past. It is the smallest pony in my tank, female, tank raised. I have looked her over very carefully I can only fine a notch out of her fin on one side of her head. Her breathing appeared normal and she has no wounds, physical marks, discolorations, air bubbles, nothing. When I pick her up she will wrap her tail around my finger. She will swim away when released but then returns to sitting close to the bottom, not moving, not eating, laying almost down on the sand while hitched to something.

Looking for any ideas. Thanks.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

One thing I did note is her anal opening appears a bit enlarged. Has a white ring around it.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

Sadly, laid the pony to rest this morning. The more I looked at the seahorse the only thing I could come up with is it obviously has not been growing at the rate the others were growing. I'm wondering if there wasn't something congenital going on. I'll keep an eye on the others.

 

[dweber618]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[rayjay]

Personally I'd never expose my seahorses to a damsel, most wrasses, and a coral banded shrimp. In fact, I prefer not to have any other fish in the seahorse tanks to eliminate transferring pathogens to the seahorses that they haven't grown up with.
Possible causes of it's problems can range from stress related illness due to faster moving and/or aggressive fish to chemical imbalances within the seahorse that can cause organ failures. The later mainly due to water quality and is usually something that occurs over time as the water slowly degrades. The degradation isn't something you can test for as there are no hobby test kits that can test for this problem so preventive maintenance is the key here.
Water quality for seahorses is seriously affected by trapped detritus/uneaten foods that decay, providing food and bedding for the nasty bacteria that eventually cause the problems. As you have macro in the tank, it's possible that even more than normal amounts of detritus and uneaten food are trapped unseen to you, decaying and deteriorating water conditions. You can take a power head and blast around the rockwork, decor, and macro to see if any of this is actually there that you didn't realize. (turkey baster can do this also, just not as effective)
The only way to know for sure the cause of death is to have a necropsy done.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Your choice of tankmates is probably the main problem. The weakest seahorse has already died and the others are at risk now. Like rayjay I never keep seahorses with any other fish or other potentially dangerous tankmates.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

The fish have never bothered the seahorses, at all. In any way shape or form. Also those fish are where they are at because they are extremely slow/timid eaters and could not compete in my reef tank. I'm not sure how the risk of disease carried in on fish that have been quarantined can be any higher than disease carried in by new plants, corals, etc that have also been cleaned/quarantined.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Does anyone have any information on how exactly a seahorse can go into organ failure because of another fish swimming around in the tank? I really would like to understand that process.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

Okay, to be on the safe side I removed all the fish but the leopard and melanarus wrasse. The melanarus wrasse is just too valuable for pest remove in the macro algae to risk taking her out and leaving critters to go unchecked and the leopard wrasse would simply die of starvation. The seahorse steal her food, which shows you how slow an eater she is. Sadly I don't expect the fish I moved to survive. They were getting out competed before which is why they were in their own tank, but I wanted to make sure the seahorses weren't getting harassed. I'm very sure they were not considering I observe this tank daily throughout the day (I work from home so I get to watch my fish a lot). But--just in case. I do not see any kind of symptoms in the other ponies. Except now they are pretty stressed cause I was removing fish an most went into hiding in the macro algae and under the mangrove roots. I was going to take them out to do this but they were all hitched to tight onto gorgonians and mangroves that I was afraid of injuring them so I left them alone and worked around them. I guess tomorrow I'll know if the fish survived the night in the reef tank.

 

[BlueCat1949]

Okay, to be on the safe side I removed all the fish but the leopard and melanarus wrasse. The melanarus wrasse is just too valuable for pest remove in the macro algae to risk taking her out and leaving critters to go unchecked and the leopard wrasse would simply die of starvation. The seahorse steal her food, which shows you how slow an eater she is. Sadly I don't expect the fish I moved to survive. They were getting out competed before which is why they were in their own tank, but I wanted to make sure the seahorses weren't getting harassed. I'm very sure they were not considering I observe this tank daily throughout the day (I work from home so I get to watch my fish a lot). But--just in case. I do not see any kind of symptoms in the other ponies. Except now they are pretty stressed cause I was removing fish an most went into hiding in the macro algae and under the mangrove roots. I was going to take them out to do this but they were all hitched to tight onto gorgonians and mangroves that I was afraid of injuring them so I left them alone and worked around them. I guess tomorrow I'll know if the fish survived the night in the reef tank.

So what happened CrayolaViolence?