S&M's Seahorse IM Lagoon 50 Build

shornik · Aug 2, 2016

77.christy said:
Mine actually came from SHsource.com also. One lasted a week, second lasted 2 weeks, last one has been 5 weeks so far and JUST TONITE ate some frozen I had mixed w/brine! So, I'm very hopeful

I'm so sorry to hear that, my impression was that all the seahorse's shipping from seahorsesource.com leave eating frozen mysis. I know when talking to Abbie she insisted that I use the same Mysis, Hikari, so I had to order some to be shipped since none of my LFS carry it. I don't know if that's what you were using but maybe that might be an issue. Also she suggested that if they aren't eating to soak the mysis in garlic oil, I used Seachem garlic guard. Also they do really eat slow so I've been feeding a lot with pumps on and off - I've settled on keeping them on, it keeps the mysis in the water column longer. I now just keep the pumps on, add some LRS frozen to let my cardinals gorge on and that leaves mysis for the ponies. Anyway hope some of this helps.

77.christy · Aug 8, 2016

Thank u! I didn't even think to check on a specific brand the SH might be used to... That makes sense. I acquired a male wild caught from RCA on Thursday. he'd been there 2 weeks and was doing good so I decided to give him a chance. He actually eats frozen from a bowl already! [emoji122][emoji7]

shornik · Aug 16, 2016

I went to one of my LFS on Friday - Sea in the City - and came out with 3 new fish. Two cleaner gobies and a barnacle blenny. The gobies are incredibly cute the way they dart about the tank and I've seen both cleaning my Cardinal Fish but not the sea horses. I have seen my cleaner shrimp cleaning the ponies. Watch the cleaning behavior in the fish and the shrimp is amazing. Anyway, I'v got pics of the gobies, but other then for a brief moment I haven't seen the barnacle blenny, I think there are just too many holes where he/she could be hiding and they don't swim around. So I figure it will just be a pleasant surprise when I do see it again.

Without further ado, the ORA sharknose goby

And the ORA Yellowline goby (I hope he doesn't feed as perturbed as his face looks).

Lionfish Lair · Aug 16, 2016

They are so CUTE!!!!!!

shornik · Aug 25, 2016

A short video to pass the day, I've named the female Mystery (sponge bob reference) and for now the male History (yeah that's pretty bad, so I'm open to suggestions for his name). The male seems to enjoy swimming with his reflection (can they see a reflection?).Anyway, enjoy....

Lionfish Lair · Aug 25, 2016

Fantastic! Yes, they can see their reflections. He's probably wondering why he can't get to the macro. My fish do it all the time.

77.christy · Aug 25, 2016

GREAT! He may Jst find himself as handsome as we do! [emoji7]

shornik · Sep 27, 2016

So I'm not sure what's wrong but my female does not look good. I noticed the other day that she had this strange jerking motion and although she's been eating she's not eating as much as she used to. Unlike the male who swims around and chases down the mysis, she doesn't (she used to but not anymore), she hitches and whatever floats by she eats. Today when I fed the tank she didn't even move and I did not see her eat at all. I don't see anything physically wrong other than breathing being more rapid than usual, but then again I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

I'm about ready to make a batch of SW for the QT and put her in it, but I don't want to add more stress without really knowing what could be wrong. This has me feeling quite helpless.

shornik · Sep 29, 2016

I'm sad to report that the female seahorse did not make it, she died sometime last night.

DeniseAndy · Sep 29, 2016

So sorry.

77.christy · Oct 1, 2016

[emoji29]. Oh no!

bios · Oct 1, 2016

So sorry ...
Had same experience , and with sea horse its very sad

Zoaeasy · Oct 1, 2016

Sorry to hear about it. I bought two about 6 months ago and the one lasted only about two weeks. I think it had white tip tail disease. By the time I had it figured out and medicated it was too late. The other one has thrived and grown to almost 5" . I tried a feeding post but did not work. Mine loves to hunt around the tank for Mysis and I really don't have a big nutrient issues. There is also a little Gobi in the tank . I live in Canada and currently having a heck of a time getting another one. My LFS imported from a facility in Syria which is now of course not available. So for now she is unfortunately alone until I can find a mate.
My tank is much smaller Cadlights 18gallon.

shornik · Oct 5, 2016

Sorry for not posting earlier to thank everyone for their kind words. I did speak, well emailed with Dan Underwood from Seahorsesource.com where I got my 2 seahorses and his thought was that the female probably had some parasite. They have a great article on doing a freshwater dip to determine if that's the problem and all I can say is that I'm now better informed. My error was thinking I'd see something on the seahorse but that may not be the case. And in hindsight I think she might have had an issue for a lot longer then I thought. I'm saying this only because I watch the male swim around the tank all day, hunt down food (like @Zoaeasy mind won't eat from a feeding post). The female never did that, or at least not very much, she would only eat hitched onto something, so I think she got weak from not eating enough, and didn't eat enough because she wasn't swimming after the food like the male. But as I said I now understand more and will be buying another female soon.

Actually I'm just waiting our Hurricane Matthew and hoping it doesn't actually come on shore anywhere in Florida.

77.christy · Oct 8, 2016

shornik said:
Sorry for not posting earlier to thank everyone for their kind words. I did speak, well emailed with Dan Underwood from Seahorsesource.com where I got my 2 seahorses and his thought was that the female probably had some parasite. They have a great article on doing a freshwater dip to determine if that's the problem and all I can say is that I'm now better informed. My error was thinking I'd see something on the seahorse but that may not be the case. And in hindsight I think she might have had an issue for a lot longer then I thought. I'm saying this only because I watch the male swim around the tank all day, hunt down food (like @Zoaeasy mind won't eat from a feeding post). The female never did that, or at least not very much, she would only eat hitched onto something, so I think she got weak from not eating enough, and didn't eat enough because she wasn't swimming after the food like the male. But as I said I now understand more and will be buying another female soon.

Actually I'm just waiting our Hurricane Matthew and hoping it doesn't actually come on shore anywhere in Florida.

Thank you for sharing this. I have one that's not eating all of the sudden. Skinny as a reed! Won't even hunt down ghost shrimp anymore... [emoji22]. Not sure about a parasite bc like you, I assumed I'd see something. Wouldn't a FW dip be super stressful?

shornik · Oct 8, 2016

I would have thought that a FW would be stressful and if you read the instructions at the link I posted from Dan Underwood of Seahoursesource.org it says to caerfully watch looking for signs of distress. But the freshwater is much more stressful, well deadly, to any parasites that might be causing the problem. And my understanding is if you don't see the parasites than you know you're most likely dealing with a bacterial infection. Since the treatments for each is different after the FW bath you'll know how to proceed.

Good luck with yours I hope everything works out.

77.christy · Oct 9, 2016

He didn't make it. [emoji37]

Daniel@R2R · Oct 10, 2016

So sorry to read about all the difficulties. Hopefully things will look up moving forward.

shornik · Oct 18, 2016

So Mystery2 arrived a few hours ago, she was floated and placed in the tank. She's 1/2 white 1/2 blotchy black I think, really cool in my opinion. Anyway, she didn't hitch right away but seems to have settled down a bit. The male (Albert) checked her out for a while but then left her to get used to things, hoping they'll hook up later on ;-)

Feeding in a few minutes to see if she'll eat - highly doubtful but will see. I'll post pics shortly....