Hi, have successfully removed air on about 4 other occasions however am getting concerned over his overall well being, is this going to kill him? and how do i help stop it?
Male kuda seahorse with air in brood pouch
- Thread starter jayrob
- Start date
went to discuss problem with fish shop I got them from and to my horror was told they couldn't help me, seperating him from the others wouldn't do much and to get the information from web forums. how can a specialist shop not know anything! so annoyed
I didn't even see this topic until now. If he has air, it could be from a few reasons. Sometimes they will get atmospheric air in their pouches, whereas at other occasions, it is actually a bacterial infection in their pouch. So this has happened multiple times on the same male? It could be a resistant infection. What I recommend you try now is to use a very blunt syringe (without the needle) and flush it with an acetazolamide solution, which you may need to repeat other day or so to stop the gas production (if that is what it is). You may also want to include a broad spectrum antibiotic along with the acetazolamide. I had to do this myself a few times. Unfortunately, I no longer recall the dosage on the solution. I'd do some searching on syngnathid.org to see if one of them might recall the proper dosage. You'll also have to obtain the acetazolamide from your local vet, where it is known as Diamox.
I have gotten some advice from seahorse Australia and will try their suggestions but they also recommended Diamox, LFS didn't tell me anything useful, even asked about set up a hospital tank and they said that to set it up would take weeks because it needed to cycle, is that correct? . He seems to be alright, gave up the gas easily yesterday and will see how he's swimming today. Seahorse Australia said he may just get over it by itself but will keep a close eye on him. Don't feel so useless anymore. Thankyou
He may very well get over it. You'll know if he does, since it shouldn't fill with gas anymore. I would also start preparing a quarantine (which I do highly recommend cycling) for now, just in case. That way, at least in this situation, you'll have it ready if there is actually an issue. If it is gas bubble disease in the pouch, you'll want to get it treated, as if left long term, it can eventually make its way into the body cavity, causing irreparable damage and eventually death.
Hi, thought I'd update on progress. Kuda was in quarintine for 5 days with Baytril solution and he's much better (yay!) hasn't been eating but will keep an eye on him so hopefully he'll pull through, his mate hasn't been eating either (?) but will let youknow if we have a complete recovery or not. Thanks again!
Just keep trying to feed them. Look for some live ghost/grass shrimp, if possible. NOt uncommon for them to refuse food right out of quarantine.
