kaz101

hi thanks for that, my mistake I answered in the reply but forgot to update my profile :oops: have since corrected, thank you

the hairclip and massage over the following days worked a treat he's back and bouncing, bobbing, showing off and can head to the top or bottom when he chooss to now. can't thank you enough for your support and advise

the aerator (?) nothing over the outlet... the bubbles... current flow.. the bubbles seem to come at go... we've had the tank for approx 7 months now but this is the first time our seahorse has suffered the Gas Bubble Disease.. not sure if our bubbles are a cause of the problem or not :-?

thank you... a great help and relief to know that someone had done it before and just how it was done a huge thanks for the hairclip idea.. my daughter contributed a hair clip which we sterilised first and it worked extremely well. we bit the bullet (and a stiff coffee!) and earlier tonight followed your instructions... a tad nerve racking really and it was a two person job.. Andy (my partner) held the seahorse and I did the prodding... and sure enough wee bubbles burst out. we repeated this a couple more times before the wee lad (the seahorse, not Andy ) gave up co-operating. he spent the next 20 or so minutes upside down approx midway inside the tank (as apposed to the top) and now a couple of hours later he's back up the top clutching onto the thermometer on the side of the tank. his belly, while smaller, is still protruding a little above the water, it seems to be swollen lower down rather than his entire belly. I'm unsure if his movement is easier as he's yet to try to head down into the tank since... but as per his norm he's eating and seems happy enough. I suspect he is recovering from the experience a lot quicker than we are I wasn't sure if we were to persist until all his belly was back to "normal", it was much less than when we started but now looking at him he's definately better but not as "thin" as when we had finished... I'm unsure if this is a normal reaction? do we persist or leave him be for a couple of days? also, as we have prodded him should we get antibiotics for the tank? there is no noticeable marks etc and the clip end went in so easily there was no need for pressure or poking as such but I'm unsure if we should treat the tank anyways? regarding the bubbles we are experiencing.... we are uploading photos to our webspace now which I will post later on this evening we live in the Manukau City area of Auckland, Jansens in Botany is our closest petshop although prior to getting our seahorses we went to Jansens in Mt Eden to talk to Ben (?) to make sure we would be suitable housemates for the seahorses thanks again, your support, advice and time, it is and was greatly appreciated

Hi wondering if anyone has had a wee pot bellied seahorse sucessfully recover from Gas Bubble Disease? We have a JEBO R760 tank (i believe it's approx 60L) 2 seahorse (males?) that we got them from Jansens (we purchased the complete setup from them) Andew (at Jansens) has been just wonderful since we introduced them to our home last year.. originally we had 3 (couldn't leave just one behind) but sadly for no known or obvious reason it died just before xmas our water testing is near perfect and well within range (we use the Saltwater Master Liquid Testing Kit), temperate is easily controlled with um.. i guess you could call them ice packs? sorry can't think of the correct word at the moment. the two remaining.... one is in perfect health but travels up to the top often to check on the one that is poorly the one that is poorly has been so for coming up to 5 days now... he has a terribly swollen belly, so much so he's um I think they call it postive buoyant? he floats on the top of the water, on his side, with his wee belly protruding above the water line. we does swim, albeit sideways but is unable to swim down into the tank (if that makes sense) he does try sometimes though. he is unable to locate food for himself but happily eats if handfed which we do twice a day as per the norm feeding routine we have. his belly is not firm to touch as such, it's squishy but very much bloated... hope that also makes sense. as you can image we've done quite a bit of reading, while much better informed I'm not sure where to proceed now. we went and saw Andrew in the weekend and after much discussion we ruled out all the major possibilities like disease, parasite etc, all that remained was food... we have always feed them mysis shrimp which they do love... we swapped to blood worm... which neither are the slightest bit interested in :-? we have since returned to feeding them mysis which both continue to eat. treating with anitbiotics was ruled out as they are look in perfect health... despite the wee swollen belly he is still perfect colour, is alert, eats as per the norm most documentation we've located seems to suggest and/or point towards Pouch Evacuation which to be completely honest, the idea scares me stupid as I would have no idea what degree of pressure is required and the idea of trying to prod the opening is not something I would comfortable doing due to my complete inexperience and I fear doing so might cause more harm than good the main article I've been reading (often... repeatedly) is... http://www.seahorse.org/library/article ... evac.shtml has anyone actually done this? trying to locate the source of the problem is of course a concern also... reading http://www.syngnathid.org/articles/diseaseGuide.html "Check for air bubbles in the water column from malfunctioning powerheads or powerheads too close to the surface, protein skimmer returns, or other sources, and rectify them. If there are no air bubbles present in the water," I'm really unsure about what this actually means.... we do have air bubbles in water from the overtop filter... but these disperse quickly as with the ones from the um.. aerator? part of the pump just below the surface (it creates for lack of a better word, a "current" in the water) the tank has always been setup this way though so I'm not sure this is the problem they are referring to :-? if anyone has any advise, suggestions or just a random thought on this, it would be greatly appreciated thanks for your time kathy