I need a Seahorse expert--new feeding dilemma

I need help addressing a recent feeding issue with my 1.5 year old female Hippo Reidi. I have had her in a 29 gal nano all by herself for over a year. Never had a feeding issue. I have fed her a constant diet of fresh water mysis shrimp and for as long as I have had her she eats it. In the last few months though I have noticed that she is interested in it but just doesn't strike at it anymore. I'm concerned because I haven't actually seen her consume one in a while. I'm looking at her body and it doesn't seem to be concave. All the parameters are in check. I'm wondering if she is getting enough to eat through the bio mass in the tank? Or if she reaching her final days and just losing appetite? Can someone with seahorse knowledge suggest something?

Tank= Bio Cube 29, CPR skimmer in the back chamber, chiller keeping water at 73, lots or LR, Phosban 150 using GFO, a few mushrooms, lots of bristle worms and a bit of an aiptasia issue (but these 2 last pests have always been in her tank, nothing new).

 

One question for you though. Why are you running a skimmer on this tank? By doing so your removing a vital food source for your seahorse. Copepods!

 

A 1.5 year horses is a young horse. They can live 6-7-8+ years in captivity. Can you post a picture? Has there been any changes to the tank recently? By fresh water mysis, do you mean frozen PE or something else?

Skimmers are great on seahorse tanks. They don't remove copepods.

 

Yes 1 1/2 yrs in your tank and probably 3 to 6 months old when you got it so that is not old. Should last a minimum of 5 years.
One thing that causes them to stop eating is parasitic infestation in the gills and upper digestive tract.
The only way to test for that that I know of is to do a fresh water dip, matching the pH and temperature and you can leave it for up to 12 minutes.
If it thrashes around when put in the fresh water it is an indication of parasites, and indeed, you should be able to see dead ones in the bottom after removing the seahorse. You can leave the seahorse for 12 minutes and remove only if it stops moving for a while and won't respond when touching. If it responds, leave it in.
However, all that being said, I would start with putting the seahorse in a bare bottom hospital tank, adding an exact number of pieces and then checking to see how many have been eaten.
If it doesn't eat then do the dip and see.
If she still doesn't eat the mysis then try live adult brine shrimp, preferably enriched, or better still live mysid. You may have to damage the live mysid to slow them up so the seahorse can catch them as she may be weak now.

 

Yes, I mean frozen PEMysis. RayJay, where did you hear about this technique? Is there any place I can verify this? Why 12 minutes?

What is the easiest way to set up a mini hospital tank for her then to try to see if she eats or not?

 

seahorses need a variety of foods in order to stay healthy, i often feed mine a mixture of mysis, brine, rotifers, and pods.

 

It is a method used by people on seahorse.org for when parasites are suspected or known. 12 minutes has been determined by seahorse keepers that have been experimenting for many years on seahorse diseases. People like Dan Underwood of seahorse source.com.
Hospital tanks are easy to set up, using an air powered sponge filter in a ten gallon tank. Monitor for ammonia, doing frequent water changes to keep ammonia at bay. Some people do 50% changes daily but I think that might be too much. I have an erectus in treatment now and I'm only changing about 20% each day.

 

Ok, so I did the dip....about 11 minutes in freshwater, and she basically just stayed still until I placed her back into her tank. She basically seems fine since then. Also I also did not detect any parasitic bugs left behind.

Still need to figure this out.

 

You might be best to post in the appropriate forum on seahorse.org and hope that Ann see's it and can help you out further. It doesn't appear to be parasitic from your dip results.
She will need a lot of history of the tank and also the test results for the water.
If any changes recently make note of that as well.
There is a sticky at the top of the emergency forum I think it is, or the disease forum, that advises on all the information that can be helpful for the best diagnosis.

 

Skimmers DO remove those copepods that live in the water column. How could it not? It's a water filter.