upsidedown sea-horse

[Monique]

Please help....Have had my sea-horse for over a month, and all seemed fine.....was swimming fine, and feeding fine.....now suddenly top heavy....he can't seem to keep his head up.....any ideas? he's a black sea-horse, and was even eating up-side-down tonight......

[Doug1]

air bubble trapped in pouch, wheres JennM whjen you need her ???

[Monique]

just who I was hoping to hear from....lol

[Homer]

Go to seahorse.org and get a message on their emergency board. They are experts and quick to offer advice.

They helped me out a few months ago.

As long as he is still eating that is a good sign. He may have trapped air bubbles. I am no expert but do you have lots of tiny bubbles in your tank from your return or a skimmer?

Homer

[JennM]

Gas bubble in the pouch. Easy to fix the symptom but you might need to treat him...

You will need to burp the pouch. This is tricky the first time you do it but not so hard once you get a feel for it.

Hold the horse with his head under the water. I usually keep the pouch submerged too, the water pressure can help, and you can see the bubbles as they escape.

It's awkward but you need to use a blunt instrument, I use a plastic pipette, but you can use a RUBBER TIPPED bobby pin or similar device... do NOT insert it into the pouch opening, but rather use the tip of the bobby pin or pipette etc., to tease the pouch opening on one side, while massaging the air bubble to the top of the pouch with your other hand (a helper is a good asset the first few times you do this...). Once the opening is open, you can massage the bubbles out of the pouch... a little stream of fart bubbles *g* should pop out of the pouch. Then the little dude should be just fine.

IF this happens again within a few days, he could have a pouch infection and need an antibiotic flush or quarantine with treatment - I'm reluctant to introduce anything into the pouch so I have opted for quarantine treatment with Kanamyacin. I have also used Acetazolomide (a "people" drug) with a veterinarian's prescription for gas bubbles under the skin, but that is a different ailment - although some have used that drug for pouch bloat with success.

Hope this helps.

Jenn

[Doug1]

Good call Homer , I forgot about them. Also might search the fish archives here, I may have saved something on this topic in the past. JennM help us out while the tea is steaping

[Monique]

You mean, TOUCH him???? lol...

[Alice]

You can always wear surgical gloves

[JennM]

Originally posted by Monique
You mean, TOUCH him???? lol...

Yeah... touch, hold, massage, and get the bubbles out. He won't bite (he might snick at you). He's not slimy or scaly either.

If you didn't touch him, how did you get him into the tank in the first place?

How is he today? If you can get the bubbles out enough for him to be upright, he might be able to flush the rest out himself.


Jenn

[Monique]

He's fine now....thanks all....he actually took care of himself.....as soon as he realized that I was reaching in for him....he squeezed the intake line for the filter so hard, that he burped himself......lol . He's upright now.......lol