Tail Rot

[kidzatheart]

Hello everyone. I picked up three 4 month old erectus horses this past weekend at macna. I put them into a bare bottom tank by themselves since they are so small. It was a newly set up tank just for them. One of the babies tail is turning white and what I have read it sounds and looks like tail rot. The other 2 horses look fine. The meds I have on hand are:
Formalin, neomycin, triple sulfa and methylene blue.

Will any of this help the baby? I have no idea what to do to treat this because I have never had this problem with my adult reidi horses.
Thanks.

 

[kidzatheart]

Forgot to mention, I have all 3 horses in a 2 1/2 gallon bare bottom tank with a sponge filter and 2 hitching post.

 

[JHemdal]

This very easily could be Uronema. We recently had a H. erectus develop a white lesion on its tail. A skin scrape showed many Uronema protozoans. We dosed the fish with Chloroquine at 15ppm for three one week treatments. The fish died, but the lesion contained no Uronema at death - the fish died from secondary bacterial infection that invaded the site of the original Uronema infection - so a double whammy that is very difficult to treat.....

Jay

 

[kidzatheart]

I am going to try and post 2 pics.

 

[Peka]

Yeah, that is tail rot. You should start to treat with furan-2 if possible. Also, I would separate the heathy from the sick before treating but keep the others in a qt tank and keep an eye on them. Tail rot is contagious...

 

[kidzatheart]

I can probably find some furan-2 but not until tomorrow. How much do you treat for a 2 1/2 gallon tank? What I do currently have is Formalin, neomycin, triple sulfa and methylene blue. Thanks

 

[namxas]

The best thing to do is use a 10 gal tank as it makes dosing meds a lot simpler. If you can't do that, then you'll need to weigh the meds out and dose by weight based on water volume.

Also, you'll want to get the temp down to 68*F or lower to arrest the bacterial growth in the tank.

 

[rayjay]

Is this 2 1/2g tank just for treatment or is it the show tank for the seahorses?

 

[kidzatheart]

Its a temp home for them since they are so small. I figured it would make it much easier to feed them. They are only like 3 inches. I have a 10g started up so i can treat the one horse.

 

[rayjay]

Keep in mind that the smaller the tank, the more likely it can be to experience bacteria problems like tail or snout rot. Most likely the problem was already begun though before you purchased this seahorse, but it's typical of what CAN happen when bacterial growth is more confined.
Housekeeping chores will have to be extremely diligent.
Recommended tank size is minimum 29g for a pair of seahorses and temperature range is recommended to be 68° to 74°F for the show tank, lower end when possible for hospital tank.
For each additional pair of seahorses you would need an additional 15g of tank size.