It never ends......

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Yes, It was supposed to be CB, but I'm 99.9% sure they were wild caught. The owner of the LFS is not real reliable when it comes to stuff like that.

I believe they were WC because all had to be trained to frozen foods, all had parasitic isopods on them, and out of the 24 she has got in in the last 6 months....only mine lived because I medicated them and fed live foods untill they took frozen. I still have 1 that won't convert to frozen no matter what I do. All of the ones at the LFS died.....I'm thinking they starved since they wouldn't eat the frozen and there is no live foods to feed them.
I will not buy from there again and I have tried talking to her, it does no good. When I originally purchased mine I didn't know they were WC. I believed her when she said they were CB and they just needed time to settle in. I now know better and I know I have to keep these 4 seperated from any and all other SW specied I get. Hind site is always 20/20 right?

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Yup, I'm typing at the same time, lol.

[seahorsedreams]

I want to give credit where credit is due. All of the above information is off of the seahorse.org site. All of the stains and work were done my Marty (labdoc) I'm not sure if I'm allowed to copy and past things from the site, but I thought it would be ok as long as I gave credit to Marty and seahorse.org. I wouldn't do it if it was not MY seahorse we were discussing. I wanted to post it here because there were so many people here that were pulling for him to get better.

Yes, it's fine that you posted it here.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Do you know if anyone has cured a SH with Myco? Just wondering if you knew if it was possible. Thank goodness it's been a month and none of my other seahorses show signs of it. I do keep an eye on them, and I panic whenever their color doesn't seem quite right, or whenever they aren't acting "normal". It has been suggested that I euthanize the remaining seahorses that are probably carriers, but I can't. It took me forever to euthanize the sick male, and then I only did it out of love for him. I couldn't watch him suffer 1 more day. His pain was my pain. It had to stop. I was over $300 in meds and supplies just for him alone and he just kept getting worse. I cried like a baby forever, but it was what was best for him.

[seahorsedreams]

With all that was wrong with him, I don't believe I could have saved him no matter what I did. I was treating for bacterial infections and fungi, but I just couldn't cure both at the same time.

There was nothing you could have done to save him.... nothing. There was nothing you could have done about the myco as a hobbyist..... honestly.

[saxman]

Renee's right.

FWIW, the owner of one of our LFS ended up with a myco infection (from working in a tank with an open sore he didn't know about), and even with treatment, it took over a year to completely clear up. i think that's the big problem with myco...it's tuff (and expensive) to keep a fish treated for that long, and to keep treating all the symptoms as they present themselves.

[seahorsedreams]

Do you know if anyone has cured a SH with Myco?

Nope. The meds are harsh and have to be taken long term. And then the odds are poor.

I was over $300 in meds and supplies just for him alone and he just kept getting worse.

yup, i know that feeling. One trip to the vet for baytril cost $150.

Euthanizing is horrible. It's like when you plop him in the "death water" you get that fleeting panic of wanting to yank him back out.

Here's my myco story....

I got seahorse fry from a friend. They were born to CB horses.... were popped out and mailed to me overnight. That was Feb. Got two horses to live out of the batch who we called "The boys". We don't typically name the fish but to label their group made it easier when they got sick.

In May bought 3 CB erectus from an online site. Placed in QT.

So then comes Oct. the boys were ready to come out of their nursery and the online erectus had already spent 3 months in QT so I placed them together.

Within the month both the boys came down sick. Infection after infection. Towards the end we were thinking it was myco. When he started to float for the 3rd time, and after about three months of treatment, I put them down with Finquel. Necropsy showed they were loaded with myco.

Since then two of the online horses have died and the necropsies on them were negative for myco.

So, what does this story tell you. I forget actually :-)

Just that exposure doesn't mean infection. Don't put down the remaining horses. I still have the one that was exposed.... and remember mine were loaded with it. But don't add any more horses to that tank and don't give any of the fry. My remaining exposed guy will forever remain alone. As they die from whatever cause don't replace them. It's the responsible thing to do.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I don't have any fry from the myco seahorses. I do have fry from other horses that were never in contact with them. I have about 50 fry that are 18 days old now. I can't believe how big they got in 2.5 weeks. I'm waiting for the frozen cyclop-eeze bars to come fedex so I can start mixing it in with the enriched bbs. They didn't like the powdered cyclop-eeze I had on hand. At night they all lighten up and I can see orange full tummies, lol. The babies arn't even in the same room as the myco exposed seahorses. I color coded all of the nets, basters, containers, and buckets so they don't get used for the other tanks. Myco Sh's have red duct tape on thier things and the babies have blue. The softie reef tank is green. I wanted to make sure nothing got cross contaminated.

Angie

[JustDavidP]

Excellent idea...excellent practice!