My seahorses died

[Chris Beddows]

I went away for a week and got back today to my seahorses being dead.

I left my brother in charge of feeding and spoke to him every day on the phone when he was feeding.

I'm devastated.

However all the levels in the tank are fine and the clean up crew are unaffected and seem happy enough. Just both the seahorses died sometime yesterday apparently.

 

Any ideas?  If it was just one that died that would be bad enough but both at the exact same time? 

Something has happened obviously but what?

 

Thanks 

[Tamberav]

I am sorry you lost them 😞

 

The CUC is a lot hardier than seahorses so they could have easily survived something the ponies could not.

 

Is it possible there was an ammonia spike? perhaps from too much leftover food? Maybe there was a bad temperature fluctuation? Some sort of contamination from airborn sprays or something on your brothers hands?

 

It is sort of anyone's guess. 

[Chris Beddows]

Thanks for your reply....

 

There was a lot of left over food in the tank yes...however the filter in this tank could handle 4 times the size.  The first thing I did was an ammonia test and it came back zero....and that's with them being dead in the tank for nearly 48hrs too. Maybe your onto something with outside contamination possibly?  My thoughts are he didn't let the food defrost enough? 

I really don't know 

[Tamberav]

Seahorses should not be kept with uneaten food. They are sensitive to bacterial infections. This is likely the cause. All uneaten food has to be removed after feeding if not finished by the cuc quickly.

 

Bare bottom tanks and feeding stations are popular to make it easy to remove the food.

 

I don't keep ponies but this is my understanding when following others threads who keep them.

[Chris Beddows]

Yes I agree and I thank you for your advice and time to give me a reply... I had my ponies for well over a year and I'm quite confident in my keeping skills...however this is the first time I have ever been away for a week and needed a babysitter so to speak...let's just say I will not be making the same mistake again. 

Very upsetting to say the least....

[Tamberav]

Just now, Chris Beddows said:

Yes I agree and I thank you for your advice and time to give me a reply... I had my ponies for well over a year and I'm quite confident in my keeping skills...however this is the first time I have ever been away for a week and needed a babysitter so to speak...let's just say I will not be making the same mistake again. 

Very upsetting to say the least....

I am very sorry 😞 I remember the pic of them, they were very beautiful. I have never tried to keep them due to their special demands, going out of town is definitely harder. I wonder if live food would be better for a babysitter to use? Live foods that can survive in salt water I mean. Such as stocking up some live pods and mysis for your bother to feed if this dilemma happens again. 

[Chris Beddows]

That may well be the way to go in the future...again thankyou for your kind words and advice x

I guess this is what we know as the bad part of our beloved hobby and unfortunately this does happen whatever we try to put in place from time to time...

Just have to learn from the mistake I'm telling myself 

 

[devaji108]

oh man that sucks I love seahorse have been wanted to set up a take for the last 4-5 years. but have not as I travel a bit.  

could have been a lot of things most likely a bac. infection that is what seams to get most of them. if you dont I would get a high quality UV added to the tank.

 

good luck if you decided to get more such magical creatures!