Sick seahorse

[rogerrgr]

Just a quick background on the tank and horse. Tank is a 26g flat back hex set up for 1.5 years with 1.5'' sand and about 25# live rock, HOB CPR fuge and HOB seaclone skimmer, no fish, peppermint shrimp..
I started 3 months ago with 2 true captive bred Hippocampus Kuda female horses both eating mysis very well twice daily. One mysteriously died while I was at work a month ago.
Last night my seahorse looked to be floating in the top of the tank but still breathing so I poked her with my finger. She whipped her tail around a little and swam over to the skimmer pump chord and hitched on and been there ever since. She isn't eating and watches the mysis float by.
Tank parameters: 71 degrees, SG 1.025, PO4 .3, Nitrate 0, Ammonia 0. Any suggestion?? Thanks!!

 

[lloffredo]

I have the same problem with two of mine. They dont appear to have anything else wrong with them. Any help?

 

[ann83]

When your seahorse swam to the skimmer cord, did she seem to be having buoyancy trouble or did she swim normally? Also, what is your pH and has it changed recently? Did you recently add the skimmer or change a pump? Does she appear bloated at all? Any external signs of illness?

 

[rogerrgr]

When your seahorse swam to the skimmer cord, did she seem to be having buoyancy trouble or did she swim normally? Also, what is your pH and has it changed recently? Did you recently add the skimmer or change a pump? Does she appear bloated at all? Any external signs of illness?

Yes she seemed to have a little buoyancy trouble for a second. The PH is 8.1 and it hasn't changed. The skimmer and refugium pump have been on there since before I added the horses and nothing else added. She didn't appear bloated, that's one of the first things I checked for. There were no external signs of illness yesterday, but today it looked like she was shedding white skin on the back of her head and neck. I know they have scales and not skin, and don't shed, but that is what it looked like. I gently squirted a little water towards it with a turkey baster after trying to put mysis by her and the skin looking stuff came off and floated away..