Over the last few weeks we have encountered our first issue with Clyde our male seahorse. Clyde encountered what we think is a bacteria infection that causes an illness called Pop-eye. This is where gas builds up behind the seahorses eyes and starts to bulge outward. Then the air pockets move outwards as air bubbles on and around the eye.

It does not look like much fun.

This is problem can occur in most fish, but with wild seahorses that only eat live food, this is a real problem. We are training the seahorses to eat frozen. As of today, we have 3 out of the 4 eating fresh dead. The first day we put Clyde in the tank he went straight to the rocks and started eat ghost shrimp. A few days later his eyes started to bulge. Once this happens the seahorse can not focus on their food. Most of our research shows that the air pockets will work themselves out of the eye socket. But in the meantime Clyde will not eat, it seems the air bubbles keep him from snapping. So we started hand feeding him the dwarf seahorses food with a syringe. At first I did not think it would work, but after several attempts Clyde started eating a small amount.

We medicate the tank daily with Melafix for 6 days. The claims are that it is a natural antibacterial remedy that will not harm higher life forms, such as inverts and coral.

Clyde eating a good portion of brine.

About a week later and 3 25% water changes, Clyde pulled through. He had lost a lot of weight and was very thin. Fortunately he did take a small amount of food when we hand feed him. He has his snap and most of his weight back and ghost shrimp population is falling fast.

While we where catching shrimp we came across this little file fish. It’s like playing where’s Waldo…