male kuda not eating

[detorka]

Hi i need some help badly, my male has not been eating properly for over a week now, most days he will eat 1 or 2 mysis, some days he wont eat at all. He is very interested in the food and trys to snick it but always misses. I have tried turning the flow off so he has more of a chance and i have tried changing the flow speed but nothing works. His trigger seems to be working fine, he has a lot of energy, and no visable signs of ill health (eyes clear and moving fine, no wounds ect)also he has been going well for over 4 months and i havnt changed anything in the tank. I have given him a dip and he didnt really move at all, so now im thinking i have to tube feed him, which is where this forum comes in because i have no idea what i have to do. Can someone please explain what to do? or if you have any other suggestions on what i could do as i really dont want to tube feed him. oh and he has a female in the tank with him and a mandarin and they are both fine with no problems.

[rayjay]

To start with, I'd put him in a quarantine tank and lower the temperature to 68°.
Get some live food and count the number you put in and you can see for sure how much he is eating.
It is best to enrich the live food before feeding to the seahorse if possible.
What size tank are the seahorses in?
For tube feeding I have a syringe and a cannula that I purchased from a vet.
I mush up very fine, spirulina, mysis and Dan's Feed, fine enough to go through the 18mm cannula.
The cannula has to go in past the trigger and gills to be able to be effective.
Feed about .5 to 1ml at a time.

[DanU]

What kind of dip and for how long? What are the current tank parameters? What size tank and what equipment are you running?

Dan

[TamiW]

Does it sounds like "weak snick" where the seahorse attempts to snick but is unable to complete the snick?

There are two possible causes that I know of. One is parasites/cilliates attacking the throat and hyoid bone. Formalin is your best choice here, though if its uronema, you may need to result to a malachite green/formalin combo (quick cure is one brand name that has both) or chloroquine.

However, there is compelling evidence that this is due to vitamin deficiencies that causes myopathy in the muslcles around the jaws and "face" muscles of sea dragons with weak snick, due to a lack of selenium and vitamin e. In those animals, supplementing with those vitamins caused the animals to resume eating again. It was a small sample size and the researcher working on it is trying to get a bigger sample going to see if those finding can be verified. But that being said, its probably something you should look at. Unfortunately I couldn't begin to tell you what dosage.