sea horse isnt eating

[pixiegirlie]

hello-

I have never posted on this section of RC before- i recently adopted a sea horse (2 days ago) from a friend who bought him about 2 weeks and it hasnt been eating since he bought it- he was ready to give up on it. literally. so i took it hoping that i would be able to get advice from my fellow reefers.

im not sure what kind he is- he is a sort of whitish color, about 3 to 4 inches tall-im not sure if it makes a difference what species he is to what he should be eating. I have tried to educate myself on seahorses in general-but i can not find much to help with a horse that isnt eating.

I have tried to feed him frozen mysis and brime, live brime, flakes, pellets, plankton. He doesnt even attempt to go after it. He looks as though his stomach is caving in...

I have read that you can tube feed them-but the one website i have found was using terms i was unfamiliar with-so I dont feel quite comfortable doing it without being more informed.

thanks for your help in advance!

[pledosophy]

The seahorse is eating something or it would be dead after that long.

I would try feeding live ghost shrimp (also called grass shrimp, they are fresh water), smaller in size ASAP and see if it is intrested.

It is not uncommon for a seahorse not to eat in a new environement for the first few days, but long periods of not eating are a cause for extreme worry. Tube feeding is usually recommended after 5 days with no food, death usually occurs around 7 days.

It would be very helpful IMO to feed some live food and find out the source of the seahorse. A picture of a profile shot and a close head shot would also be helpful.

I would also drop the temp on the tank the seahorse is in to 68F or so but not below 65F.

Best of luck.

[Rays]

You might also try live brine shrimp for starters, if you aren't able to find ghost shrimp. Live brine alone are nutritionally deficient, i.e. no food value. What you can do is "gut load" the live brine with either Selco, selcon or finely ground spirulina powder or flakes. This way the nutritional value of the enrichment is conveyed to the seahorse through the shrimp. Good luck.

[pixiegirlie]

where would i find the selco,selcon? im going to get live ghost shrimp tomorrow-they sell those at like petsmart and such right?

[Rays]

I've never looked for ghost shrimp, so I couldn't tell you. However, at this stage of the game, the horse is probably in a weakened condition. If the ghosts are too large he won't be able to get them down anyway. I would stick to enriching live brine for starters, you can usually get live brine and selcon at a local LFS. If no selco, try some other enrichment.

[pledosophy]

IME even weakend WC's will eat smaller ghosts.

IME many WC's will not recognize brine as food. If they will eat the gut loaded brine, it is a start. Anything to get them eating is good.

JME

Selcon is available at many LFS's or online at places like liveaquaria. Finding it locally will spead up the process, sooner the better. Might try contacting seahorsesource.com as they are in Florida and shipping might be less expensive for you.

[jlnune07]

I would definitely start with some ghost shrimp. As previously mentioned it is critical that seashorses get food daily and he is most definitely eating something to stay alive this long. I have a cuda in my 12g nano and I set up a 10 gal ghost shrimp tank right next to it to maintain a good feeding schedule. Its hard to get to the store every day so this was worth the investment. I usually scoop about 4 out and put them into a tupper ware and feed them cyclopeeze about 5 min before I throw them into the tank for the seahorse.

You might also want to consider the possibility of injury. A lot fo seahorses get a rip in their throat due to random scrapes in the tank or problems if they swallow food that is too big. I would say make sure you don't have your tank overloaded with LR, low flow and definitely go for smaller ghost shrimp. If he is coming back from a throat injury the smaller ghosts are the way to go. Good luck!

[pixiegirlie]

ok,i tried the live brime and it didnt work (for the second time)- tried ghost shrimp and he would look at them but not even attempt to catch them.

im really becoming worried about him. i talked to some lfs employees and some wanted me to try "tigger pods" or "arcti-pods" by reef nutrition. i figured id ask you guys to see if any of you have tried them.

[Rays]

Either of those would be excellent, however if he's not even going for the ghosts I think it will be unlikely he'll go for those. If you're willing to go to the expense, then by all means give it a shot. After all that is what they eat in the wild.

[hydroid]

Is his trigger (below his snout/head) in the down position? Maybe he can't eat.