Seahorse parasites

[Ekgoetze08]

Two of my seahorses have external parasites. Can we try to remove them? They are in a hospital tank now with formalin.

[ThRoewer]

It's Argulus (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa184), a crustacean parasite, also called fish louse. They are quite common with pond fish (fresh and saltwater).
They can be manually removed (use tweezers) if just dealing with a low infection on a few fish in a QT setting.
Chemotherapy to treat larger systems with many fish would require Trichlorfon (Dylox).

I've seen aqua cultured seahorses come with these - it seems the breeder has an infested outgrowing pond.

[Ekgoetze08]

Thanks so much me and my boyfriend just removed them :)

[BlueCat1949]

You will want to do a medicated dip of some kind to clean them off your horses. Google it for suggestions on how to proceed. Removing them manually is only a temporary solution as there are always more that you don't see in your system to reinfect your horses.