Found injured seahorse in surf

[reefy em]

I found a small (1") seahorse drifting in the surf today here on Mustang Island. He probably got knocked out of the sargassum and it looks like someone took a bite off his tail... he's missing about half of it. Poor little fella...

I set up a quick little container with seawater, sargassum, and a low airstone but will probably grab a 2-5gallon tank tomorrow. I'm going to try and rehab him, and hopefully his tail can grow back because he can't really hitch to anything so he's just wallowing around. I have some cyclops but not much else to feed him. Should I get some baby brine? Should I put some stress coat or other medication in there? Any suggestions???

[ann83]

For a 1" seahorse, baby brine would work, copepods and/or small shrimp nauplii from www.seawaterexpress.com would be better. If you call, he should be able to set you up with the right sized food items. I'd get a 10 gallon instead of a 2-5 gallon, 10 gallons are cheaper, and they give you more water volume to work with so you have to do fewer water changes to keep up with ammonia. I assume you know to treat this like a hospital tank situation doing daily water changes and possibly having to add Amquel Plus to keep the ammonia down.

Is the tail healed over or is it a raw open wound? Any chance you can get a picture? If its healed over, then he's probably fine, since tails don't grow back, it could be an old wound that he's learned to live with, and he would have been fine had you left him.

Make sure you can keep the temperature stable in the tank you are keeping him in, and try to slowly bring the temperature down to 70, or at least under 74, to prevent bacterial infection. If its an open wound, you may want to try to get a hold of bio-bandage or something like it, and topical neosporin, plus Neomycin and Triple Sulfa in case it develops a secondary infection.

I'm guessing you have H.zosterae on your hands, if it is 1" from tail tip to coronet, rather than a juvenille erectus. If it is an open wound, I highly recommend you post in the emergency forum on www.seahorse.org with a picture and as much information on the setup and the seahorse behavior as possible, and there should be someone around at all times to help walk you through this.

If the wound is healed over, then we just need to get you set up with a dedicated seahorse tank to take care of this critter, or get you in contact with someone who can take him off your hands.

[reefy em]

Thanks for the link but I can't afford those prices for the nauplii. I'll see if I can find it around here. Are the cyclops too big? I can't get a good picture of him yet but should be able to once I get him in an aquarium. Also then I can see if his tail healed or open.

He was out in the open water and would have gotten eaten or washed ashore in a few minutes if I left him.

[ann83]

Seahorses from the wild don't recognize any food but live, and have to be trained, over a period of weeks, to accept frozen foods. H.zosterae rarely take to frozen foods for long, even when born in captivity.

[angieg1123]

Here is a very good place to get the LIVE foods you need and they are inexpensive too. I used them every 3 weeks for 2 years when I bought seahorses from the LFS that were NOT trained to frozen. They were "supposed" to be captive bred NOT!


http://www.livebrineshrimp.com/

They have BOTH live brine shrimp and live marine feeder shrimp. Your seahorse will eat both, but the marine feeders are best for him. (unless they are too big for him to eat...then get the brine shrimp)

Good luck.


Oh I almost forgot. Triple sulpha and neo can be ordered from seahorsesource. Great antibiotics and quick to ship.


Angie

[reefy em]

Thanks Angie.

Do I need brine or baby brine shrimp? He's only about 1".

[ann83]

baby brine

[reefy em]

I can hatch those from the hatchery kit, right?

[ann83]

I'd also get some copepods while you are at it in case he doesn't recognize the baby brine... and get some enrichment for the baby brine, unless you are hatching your own and feeding out less than 12 hours old. Did you get a pic yet?

[ann83]

Yes you can, but hatching artemia takes anywhere from 12-24 hours, once set up, which is too long for your seahorse to go without food, so you need some live, readily available food for him while you wait on the artemia to hatch.

[reefy em]

I'll try to get some pods from my reef tank. I can't get a good picture of him in the container he's in right now. He has been moving around more this evening and is hanging around the upper area instead of just lazing on the bottom.

[ann83]

Okay, be careful taking pods from your reef tank though, a seahorse that small is vulnerable to things like hydroids, that you might not even notice in your reef tank. Is he 1" from tip of tail to top of his head when he is all stretched out, or is he 1" when his tail is curled?
Also, did you get the temperature in his container stable under 74 yet? Or have you been able to see if it is an open wound? You can handle him in order to figure out if it is an open wound... just handle him as little as possible. If it is an open wound, this isn't something we can sit on, it needs to be taken care of before he develops a secondary infection and dies.

[ann83]

Oh, and since you now have a new seahorse for a pet, it wouldn't hurt to spend your free time reading in the library here http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles.shtml and the forums here http://forum.seahorse.org/ so you can get a better idea of its long term care and setting up its permanent home (or find someone able to care for him long term if you decide not to).

[reefy em]

I'm going snorkeling tomorrow and will get some macroalgae and a ton of pods for him. He is 1" to the end of his "tail", he doesn't have a curl. The temperature is 78 but I turned the AC down so it'll go down more. He's in a 1gal. jug and it would be hard for me to get him out easily so I looked at him with a flashlight and I'm pretty sure it's healed up. I didn't see any whitish flesh on the end, all dark grey like he is. I'll double check though when I move him tomorrow. I'm trying not to mess with him too much today.

[ann83]

Okay... please read up on setups for dwarf seahorses before you go snorkeling to pick him up things from the ocean... in all likelihood, if he is actually missing a large part of his tail and is still 1", he is a baby seahorse, since dwarf seahorses reach 1" maximum, usually, and housing requirements will be similar. There is also an article in the library that I directed you to that tells you how to raise baby H.erectus (which is probably what he is if your description is correct), that you should read through as well. A sterile environment really is best... hydroids can and will sting and kill it in the home aquarium (things are more spread out in the ocean, giving the seahorse a better chance of survival). Bringing more things in from the ocean is only threatening him further. That temperature is also a big problem. In containers that small (or really anything smaller than a large aquaculture facility), bacteria counts are more concentrated, and they reproduce faster and mutate to more dangerous strains at temps above 74 degrees, so he is at a big risk until you can bring the temperature down (especially if he is injured).
To be honest, he probably would have been better off in the ocean where bacteria counts are dilluted and there is more space to get away from tiny dangers like hydroids. They are better swimmers than you think (they don't use their tails much for swimming, so that wasn't a hinderance in that respect).
As it is, you need a proper setup for him immediately. I would shoot for something along the "sterile hospital tank" spectrum, and then build from there once we determine what species he is. Are you buying the 10 gallon tank tomorrow? I would also get a sponge filter and some amquel plus while you are at it. Mix up some fresh saltwater to match the temperature, salinity, and pH of the ocean water that you have him in, and put him in that, where he is safe from hydroids for the moment. Also, look into purchasing some panacur in case hydroids do turn up in the process of raising him (or in the course of his lifespan if he is zosterae). Are you monitoring the ammonia in the jug he is in?

[reefy em]

If I just get some pods out there would that be okay? That's the only place I can get some right now (not alot in my reef) and that's the quickest way to get him some live food. Yes, I will get him a tank tomorrow and keep it sterile, I have a filter and Amquel I can use. The temp is now 76 and the ammonia is 0.

I agree he would be better off in the wild but he was not in the bay near any seagrasses or any habitat whatsoever. He was in the Gulf, about 10 yards from the shore and the only habitat and cover he had was sargassum which he wasn't even close to. If I didn't get him, he would have been eaten or washed ashore in no time. Trust me, I'm not doing this just to have him as a pet and if he seems to be okay I will consider releasing him into the seagrass meadows. I did all that I could today to take care of him and will get him all set up tomorrow.

I really appreciate your help and am reading as much as I can about it all.

[ann83]

Getting pods from the wild ought to be okay, if at all possible, strain them out of the water, and just use the pods, although temporarily, he'll probably be okay with the seawater. I just wanted to stress the hydroid issue because since he is so small, that is something that could be overlooked, and ultimately his system will need to be safe from them. I would still like to determine what species he is. It will help determine his longterm care and the setup that you need to be putting together for him. You might be able to do a bit of research on his species yourself, by looking up pics of hippocampus zosterae and juvenile hippocampus erectus in the gallery on seahorse.org
I don't know what the laws are in Texas, but I was under the impression that you couldn't release him back into the wild once you took him out. Anyway, once he is exposed to you reef water, any medicines, or anything else that didn't come straight out of the ocean with him, it would be irresponsible to put him back, for the sake of the wild population.
I am really glad that you are reading all you can, and I see you are a marine biology grad student, so if I had noticed that before, I might have given you more credit for thinking this through. From my point of view, taking on a wild caught seahorse is quite a difficult task, and taking on a possibly injured seahorse a bigger task. Add into that the fact that he is either a baby seahorse or a dwarf seahorse, both requiring even more specialized care, and I was worried that he would end up dying in that jug, having been put there by what I was guessing was a well-meaning but potentially clueless (when it comes to syngnathids) reefer. So I pressed the need for the setup and the reading and the specialized care, on the seahorse's behalf, but I am glad to know that you are taking the initiative on your own. There are specialized forums on both dwarf seahorses and the rearing of larger species seahorse fry, and without a positive I.D., I would suggest focusing your reading on both of those forums.

[reefy em]

Ok, I got a 10 gallon aquarium from our lab and have about 5 gallons of water mixing (all I had right now).

Question though...should I make the rest out of IO or should I get the rest from the gulf? I know the mixed water would be more "sterile" but I was thinking there may be some organisms he could munch on in the gulf water that can get him by until I get baby brine going. I know he needs to get in the bigger tank ASAP but shouldn't it to cycle for a little while before I put him in there?

[ReefNutPA]

Personally, I would use all mixed water. Run out to the LFS and pick up a bag of IO, you're going to need lots of it Unfortunately, there isn't time for a cycled tank at this point. You're going to have to do daily water changes (25%-50%) on the 10 gal tank to keep ammonia down in addition to adding something like Amquel + to the tank to neutralize the ammonia that does build up.

You've taken on quite a challenge - but I know you can handle it It's just going to be time consuming.

Tom

[ann83]

IO is better, but if he doesn't have anything to eat, that is a bigger problem than hydroids. The digestive system of an adult seahorse shuts down after 4 days without eating (so they starve even if they get food after that point). I am not sure how soon it shuts down with juvies or with dwarf seahorses, so getting him food is priority.
A 10 gallon should be perfectly fine for an uncycled quarantine tank. You will just have to monitor ammonia, do frequent water changes, and possibly dose with small amounts of Amquel. I think daily water changes should suffice for keeping ammonia down without much difficulty with just him in a 10 gallon. Don't bother cycling the 10 at the moment, because he needs it now, and if he turns out to be H.erectus, he will need a larger permanent tank anyway. Also, go bare bottom in the 10 gallon so that you can monitor his poo (the easiest way to make sure he is eating when you aren't looking). Plus, it makes it easy to siphon the waste out of the tank with water changes to help prevent ammonia. I'd be feeding him 3x a day or more, and testing for ammonia an hour or so after feeding, and siphoning out waste (turkey basters work great for that) at that point as well. Just leave the turkey baster next to the tank, and siphon out waste whenever you see it. Also, consider pointing a fan at the surface of the water to bring the water temperature all the way down to 74F. You can use an overhead marker to mark the water level, so that you can see how much FW topping off (make sure the FW is buffered in this small a volume of water) is needed after evaporation. Just make sure to re-mark the level after you siphon out waste.

[ann83]

Oh, and if you can't see anything in the seawater that he could eat, there isn't anything in there. Its not like he's a filter feeder. He needs copepods and baby shrimp. Order copepods from www.seahorsesource.com or someplace else, and ask people in your local reef club, or people in your biology department, if they can spare you some copepods, shrimp nauplii, rotifers, or baby brine shrimp. This is kind of an emergency so hopefully someone will be willing to help you out.

[reefy em]

I can get pods out of the macroalgae on the jetties today.

[reefy em]

I put "Sam" in his new 10 gallon yesterday morning and he's still kicking. He'll have periods of dead-still resting then swiftly swimming around the tank (too cute BTW). The resting periods keep scaring me but as soon as I mess with him or stay there for a little while, he'll move around. I think he gets scared when I first come in there. I did get some algae with pods yesterday but not as much as I expected since it was low tide. When I got home he was in his resting stage and looked dead just laying on the bottom. He perked up but I though he might need something on the bottom to lay on since he can't hitch to anything so I put just a couple of pieces of the algae in there and now he always lays in them more upright. I really don't think there's anything harmful on them. His wound seems to be healed completely over so I'm not going to worry about an infection right now.

I went ahead and put some frozen baby brine in there just in case he would take it. I saw him jerk his head real fast a few times but I couldn't tell if he was eating or not. This morning I had my first batch of live baby brine so I put some in there and saw some snaps again but still couldn't tell.

The temperature is 74, ammonia is 0. I am going to siphon out the bottom just to keep it clean tonight.

Here's some pictures I took to help ID him.

[ann83]

Wow, you weren't kidding. She really is missing most of her tail. I think he/she is a juvenile Hippocampus erectus. Right now it looks like a she (because it doesn't have a pouch), but since it is still so young, it could still turn into a he later. Lots of pretty cirri. Watch Sam for any white spots appearing, especially on the tip of the tail. Save some of the newly hatched brine and you can feed him 2-3 day old enriched brine as well. Shoot for more than 3 feedings a day. As long as you are keeping up with ammonia, you can pretty much feed him whenever you get the chance.
I'm not really sure what procedure to take on having a WC juvenille seahorse. Right now, lets get him eating, any live marine foods you can come up with, and gutload the older brine and other shrimps with enrichments. Keep an eye on his poo, and make sure he's pooing and that its not white and stringy. After he's eating solidly, you will want to look into procedures for de-worming and training to frozen foods. The Wild Caught Forum on seahorse.org has a lot of that information.
Oh, and post these pics in your other thread too if you can...

[reefy em]

HE'S EATING!!!!! I just saw him eat three baby brines! Yay! Now I need to get the stuff to enrich them....but still...yay Sam!!!!