Posted by Seanic Aquarium on July 15, 2002 at 07:26:21:
In Reply to: dwarf seahorses gasping posted by Melissa on July 13, 2002 at 20:00:52:
There are a couple possible reasons for you trouble. But stress from shipping sounds like the cause. When you receive a batch try to add something to the water which is a stress cure. The other thing I might suggest is placing your new arrivals in a small pail and dripping them into the holding tank over a 2-3 hour period. One other thing to do is place a air pump in the bucket to replenish oxygen. I am not sure where you are and where they came from but oxygen may have been depleted. The number one thing I would do is treat them for stress though. Keep your lighting dim, don't feed them for the first 24 hours, and they should be ok if you need to get another batch.
Good Horsing
Aaron
: I got 5 dwarf seahorses yesterday. One was dead and the others were gasping hard, but If i sent them back the others would die in the mail and I wouldn't be able to get replacements for two months. So I started to acclimate them. I skipped sitting them beside the tank for an hour (the water looked really nasty) So I added a teaspoon of tank water every 8 min for 3 hours with one 30 min break. One died. Now the other three are lying on their sides gasping. I did a 60% water change. It didn't seem to help. I also added Methyl Blue which seems to be helping some (two are sitting up now) They haven't stopped gasping and aren't eating. I was wondering what happenend? Could the weather have been the culprit? Their box wasn't insulated and when they were being shipped we had three 95 degree days followed by two 70 deg. days. Why wont the gasping stop even after i moved them into the tank? I have a three gallon eclipse. W/ temperature of 78 salinity 1.025. My tank cycled for 2 months w/ live plants and it now has coralline algae growing on the back.
