Stopped eating

[laga77]

Have had the two tank bred Seahorses for a month now. The only other animals in the tank are a couple of small crabs and snails. They have been eating very well with PE mysis and Hikari Ocean Plankton. They have been fed twice a day since getting them. Both would go after food aggressively eating 3-5 mysis. Yesterday evening, the male did not want to eat. This morning, both ate only one mysis. I tried again just now and neither ate. The tank parameters are ph 8.0, Alk 9.5 dKH, 1.026 sg, 0-1 nitrates, and .02 phosphates. Temp is 70.5F I have been doing weekly 4-5G WCs with vacuuming the thin gravel bottom and removing waste whenever I see it. Both appear normal. There is some cyano in the tank, but it is not bad. Should I be worried ?

 

[ThRoewer]

Is the breathing normal or elevated?

 

[vlangel]

Have had the two tank bred Seahorses for a month now. The only other animals in the tank are a couple of small crabs and snails. They have been eating very well with PE mysis and Hikari Ocean Plankton. They have been fed twice a day since getting them. Both would go after food aggressively eating 3-5 mysis. Yesterday evening, the male did not want to eat. This morning, both ate only one mysis. I tried again just now and neither ate. The tank parameters are ph 8.0, Alk 9.5 dKH, 1.026 sg, 0-1 nitrates, and .02 phosphates. Temp is 70.5F I have been doing weekly 4-5G WCs with vacuuming the thin gravel bottom and removing waste whenever I see it. Both appear normal. There is some cyano in the tank, but it is not bad. Should I be worried ?

If they were my seahorses, I would wipe down every surface in the tank and use a turkey baster around all rock work. Then I would do a large WC immediately after. Also if there are any filter socks, filter pads or anything that traps food or waste I would remove it and replace if it's something like carbon.

If you have access to live brine shrimp or small feeder shrimp I would try to revitalize their interest with some gut loaded live food. Sometimes the movement of live prey attracts them.

 

[laga77]

Breathing is normal. Last night the female ate 1 piece of mysis but the male did not eat when food was offered, he did eat 1 piece after the pumps were turned back on.

 

[rayjay]

I agree with using a live food to see if they will feed on the live, especially when the one ate after the pump was turned back on, possibly helping to make the food SEEM live to it.
If not, you are going to have to place them in a hospital tank and treat.
Not knowing exactly what is wrong is problematic though as it's a best guess scenario as to treatment form.
Personally I would be first doing a fresh water dip for up to twelve minutes, using water that matches closely the pH and the temperature of the tank water.
If parasites are a problem you will see severe thrashing of the seahorses as the parasites explode/exit the gills and body of the seahorse. If no thrashing parasites aren't the problem.
If not parasites, the next best guess would be chemical imbalances within the seahorses as some of their organs become affected by deteriorating water quality.
Even though your water may test excellent as far as all your test results go, we have no test kits available to the hobbyist that can tell you when the water quality has slipped to the point of increasing the odds of bacterial and chemical attacks on the seahorses so it's a case of doing preventive measures above and beyond what a normal reef tank requires, IMO.
If no parasites are the problem, the next thing I would try would be FURAN II in a ten gallon hospital tank.
Sometimes the condition requires Diamox but that doesn't always have definite indicators and also, it requires a prescription to obtain that med.

 

[laga77]

They are doing better today. Both ate 2 pieces of mysis this morning and are a little more active. The only change I made was to increase flow from sump into tank. This does not effect flow in the tank much as the way the cube tank is set up. If they stop eating again I will proceed with the FW dip. I will also pick up from Furan II just to have it. Thanks

 

[rayjay]

Flow rate for a seahorse tank should be in the 10X range or above.
Criteria is to not have any blast that can throw them against something where they can be dammaged, and to have hitching in low, medium and high flow areas so they can choose where they want to be at any given time.