new horse won't eat

S

SeaDude

I just got a pair of captive-bred sea horses on Friday. One seems to be doing fine - it's eaten and explored the tank a little.

The other was not looking so good when it first arrived but is looking a little better now. However, he still won't eat and hasn't move from the same spot in two days.

I'm feeding frozen Hikari mysis and live brine shrimp.

A live brine shrimp will swim right past its nose and the sea horse could care less.

Any ideas?

Since they were raised on frozen mysis, should I even be trying the live brine?
 
Me and other member got the seahorses exactly same day from Jorge. Both of my seahorses are breathing heavily . They did not eat mysis shrimp but a little bit live BBS. I talked with her and hers seem having the same issue. Unfortunately, one of her female not made it this AM. I just keep watching them and keep you update.
 
Sorry to hear that yours are not doing well either.

Do you think they are still stressed from shipping? Or from differences in salinity?

Jorge had asked that I check the water parameters when they arrive. Here what they were for me
temp 65F
pH 7.6
ammonia 2.0
salinity 1.029

I really hope all our horses pull through...
 
This might not help but I believe Jorge said he was feeding them PE mysis at this point. You might want to give it a try. I have had picky seahorses in the past that perfered one type over the other.
 
i hope they just stressed from shipping which is common. The parameter i found when they came on friday were:
ph 7.8
salinity 1.029
temp (not test, but it was cold when i feel the water)
i acclimatize them about 30 minutes with exchange 1 cup water twice.
yes, i hope every horses doing well.
ps. i used PE mysis, cyclopee, garlic, hiraki mysis & vibrance I , plus decap live BBS.
 
That was the water test from the contents of the bag? 1.029sg?
 
1.029sg? said:
35 ppt

Yes, that's what I tested from the bag with my refractometer. I was really surprised because I thought Jorge said he kept it much lower.

It seems so wrong I guess I could have botched somehow.

I acclimated slowly over an hour.
Click to expand...
 
This might not help but I believe Jorge said he was feeding them PE mysis at this point. You might want to give it a try. I have had picky seahorses in the past that perfered one type over the other. said:
Thanks Nicki. It's worth a try.

Where can I get PE mysis locally?
Click to expand...
 
William and David,

What kind of tanks do you all have the horses in? Are they in your reef tanks or seahorse-only tanks?

Lee
 
Try getting a half dozen ghost shrimp. They are larger than brine and are more nutritious.

Don't worry about the seahorse getting off of the frozen, this is a treat to entice them to eat after shipping. Once acclimated they will readily go back to frozen.

Dallas North Aquarium carries ghost shrimp as feeders. One day a week I get ghost shrimp for my H. Reidi and they really hunt for them.
 
Guys,

Doug is going to get some ghost shrimp. I will try that. Male is so beautiful it makes me sick to not try something. Thanks for your suggestions.

Our tank is a 30 gal cube with only the two seahorses. It is a established tank, also.

Keep me posted on how everyone elses seahorses are doing.

Joanna & Doug
 
Although its a bummer anyone is experiencing trouble with one of these beautiful seahorses, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one having trouble with a brand new pair of H. reidi seahorses from Jorge. I have had my pair 12 days now...they are beautiful creatures, but are still breathing somewhat heavily and not touching frozen Mysis. I have tried Hikari, H20, and Piscene Energetics. I have added garlic and selcon. I have tried the tiny live ghost shrimp as well as live brine shrimp. They just stair at the food as it bumps them on the nose. I have lots of pods in the tank, but I've not seen any foraging or active behavior. It's had me worried sick, but they show no outward signs of a specific disease other than the labored breathing. They still have decent yellow color (not the stressed out all black...) I would have thought after twelve days something would change. I've spoken multiple times with Jorge. He is extremely puzzled b/c he said they were chowing like pigs on frozen mysis at his facility. He obviously wants them to make it, but doesn't really at this point know what to suggest that I do.

The male is noticeably skinny, but the female still looks the same (body cavity wise). My water parameters are good...no ammonia or nitrate, 78 degrees, 1.024 salinity. They are in a well established 12g nano cube with one small goby, zoanthids and a small capnella which they both love to wrap around. The goby is fine.

I want to do whatever I can to save them. I fully expected them, from talking to Jorge, to come in just ready to roll and doing great.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks a ton!
 
my poor male seahorse just died right after I bought ghost shrimp home. I am so sad so him. The female is still breathing hard and not look good either.
 
David, you can get PE mysis from DNA or Aquatic Design. There could be other places that sell it. These are the only two I know of.
 
My wife won a pair at Next Wave and wanted a pair of Erectus so ordered those as well.

The shipping container water was at about 66 degrees when the shipment arrived. I floated the bag in an established Nano (no other inhabitants, we had been waiting to add horses and got lucky at the drawing) for more than 1/2 hour and then did water adds/extracts acclimation for another 1/2 hour until the water in the bag matched the tank.

The Female Reidi lasted about two days. We called Jorge a couple of days later and got an ear full of "they were fine when shipped", "you should have called right away", yada, yada. Tried to explain we were watching the others to make sure they were ok - but overall I'm not pleased with his comments.

Fortunately for him he was talking with my wife as I am only as co-operative as the other person chooses to be and I can heat up really quickly.

We moved the male and the Erectus to the 29 tall they were meant to inhabit. Not quarentined as long as we wanted in the Nano but we had hopes the additional water and filtration would help.

Jorge shipped a replacement Female.

Same story on water temp (65 degrees). This time I moved her out of the bag into a 1/2 gallon container with some of the shipping water and started a drip acclimation.

My wife called Jorge again and was told floating the bag was the better alternative, but I had already started the other method and pulled her to 72 degrees in about 15 minutes then slowed the drip way down. She got way more animated after the water went over 70 so I am more comfortable I did right by her getting her warmed up.

Jorge wanted to know if the heat pack was warm. This 3 x 3 pack was on the outside of a 12 x 12 styrofoam shipping container. Not sure how it was ever supposed to keep the water warm from the outside of the box but it was cold anyway so it's a given it wasn't going to keep anything warm even if it were in with the water.

Anyway, she is doing ok and eats ok, moves around some, et cetera.

Of course, now the male is not doing quite as well. He eats a little but is slimming down by the day. We don't think he will make it but will get a mate for the female elsewhere if he doesn't. Had enough of Draco.

Not happy to hear anybody else is having problems (including losing the ponies) and I am not very pleased with the amount of money we paid for dual shipping "free" horses but you might consider telling Jorge you want to take him up on the replacement offer if they lasted less than a week.
 
Well, sorry to hear about your experiences with Jorge's horses as well. I had a good impression of him from meeting and talking with him and certainly didn't expect to have problems with the horses. It sounds like no one has had any success so far with his specimens since Next Wave. My two are alive (barely)...have not eaten at all in the almost two weeks since I received them and don't seem to be turning the corner.

I'll definitely be on the phone with him tomorrow...not sure what he can do short of re-shipping me a pair if these die. I spent over $200 with him (with shipping) and certainly don't want to see it go down the tubes!

If anybody has any other insight at this point let me know.

Thanks,

Matt
 
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