Help! OR Vibio?

[rayjay]

First of all, "wild" specimens doesn't mean anything to me as all these captive bred seahorses started with wild stock and the genealogy would continue.
I don't really see any half moon between the eye spine and nose spine. There is somewhat of a curve just above the eye spine. One of mine with a shorter snout that the others, has a curve from the nose spine to the end of the snout.
Maybe I'm looking for something different from what you are seeing.
I do agree with you though, that every time I look back at your picture of your seahorse, I wouldn't think of it being a barbouri, especially as the body spines are not as prominent as my barbs or the barbs I had many years ago. (I just looked at the pics on my website to compare)

 

[kizanne]

First of all, "wild" specimens doesn't mean anything to me as all these captive bred seahorses started with wild stock and the genealogy would continue.
I don't really see any half moon between the eye spine and nose spine. There is somewhat of a curve just above the eye spine. One of mine with a shorter snout that the others, has a curve from the nose spine to the end of the snout.
Maybe I'm looking for something different from what you are seeing.
I do agree with you though, that every time I look back at your picture of your seahorse, I wouldn't think of it being a barbouri, especially as the body spines are not as prominent as my barbs or the barbs I had many years ago. (I just looked at the pics on my website to compare)

I mean that wild specimens you expect might have sub-par markings because they aren't retailers. Breeders get to choose their brood stock. Why would you choose sub-par markings (everything really).

Here the half moon I keep referring to. I just happen to notice all the Barbouri pictures I looked at had it. Of course they also had the zebra snout.

 

[kizanne]

well today they updated their website to show their new black/red Barbouri's looks like mine without the zebra snout. This is extremely disappointing. They have purposely bred a non-zebra snout Barbouri? then sold it to me without warning (and sick and over charged me on shipping). I'm still not convinced it is a Barbouri (maybe a hybrid).

FYI it is 11 am their time and still no email or phone call.

 

[kizanne]

Well they must have received their notice from the credit card company because I got a generic email today. I hear you have an issue with your order, can you tell me more.

Apparently they still haven't read my actual emails. *sign* so we will see what they have to say.

 

[kizanne]

Well after my reply they have refunded my money so that is the best one could hope for.

 

[vlangel]

I have been following and am happy that OR made things right. Refunding your money is the best thing they could do. I am still interested in whether the ponies are responding favorably to treatment?

 

[rayjay]

Glad to hear that you received a refund.
As for the half moon, NONE of mine have the half moon like in your picture.
There is a slight slope down from the two spines but between the slopes it is relatively flat like you "filed off" the lower part of the half moon.
Let us know how the treatment works for the seahorses.

 

[kizanne]

they are eating small amounts now and we are having some small poops. The side doesn't look better or worse. The Furan isn't here yet. But I am treating. They are being more active and occasionally they are eating frozen mysid. I stopped the brine but still have live grass shrimp in there. I'll probably add some more brine tonight just to make sure they are eating enough. The female seems to just love the brine and she is not so thrilled with the frozen. Both are a little more mobile/energetic so I'm hopeful. I"m using Melaleuca which I have used in the past with great results so hopefully that will help. When the Furan arrives if they aren't doing better I'll switch to Furan. I usually don't have sick fish so I don't keep Furan on hand. I ordered a second one though to keep on hand for the future.

 

[kizanne]

I have been following and am happy that OR made things right. Refunding your money is the best thing they could do. I am still interested in whether the ponies are responding favorably to treatment?

Yes I was happy with that. I wasn't happy I had to file credit card dispute paperwork to get their attention. And half wondered if they only refunded because they figured they'd lose the dispute. What if I hadn't filed? Would they have bothered to even respond to my emails? or phone call? It was obvious by the email I got they hadn't read any of the email I sent them.

 

[kizanne]

ON a side note. I found some Barbouri's elsewhere and ordered them. I sent a note making sure they understood I expected a zebra snout and a boy and a girl when something is listed as a pair.

I still hope to breed regular Barbouri. I may breed these brown/red ones (I mean they are a boy and girl can't really stop them and I don't kill babies so...) but I'll make sure any customer knows what they are getting.

I think the boy might be holding now and I'm worried about the treatments hurting the babies. I don't mind losing the babies but I"m not sure I'm ready to try to evacuate a pouch of a sick fish.

 

[kizanne]

Oh and I'm still not sure they aren't hybrids.

 

[kizanne]

Well the boy sent out his babies today. Most don't appear to be doing to well the medicine is probably too harsh for them.

Maybe he can get better faster now with less of a load. She is already trying to entice him. I hope the shortness of the tank discourages more babies for now. He needs to heal.

 

[kizanne]

Well close to 2 weeks of Furan haven't made a difference. While he's eating better and moving around some, his side isn't getting better. I don't know if he's got a antibiotic resistant infection or what.

The babies didn't make it. I don't know if I should continue the Furan treatments or if I should switch back to melaleuca which I"ve had luck with in the past. Try a different medication like erythrimycin (sp?)

 

[rayjay]

I wouldn't expect it to be healed yet. While the antibiotics can be working just fine, it takes a LONG time for the actual healing to complete.
Just imagine say if you had serious burns to the same proportion of your body that this bacteria has affected on the seahorse. How long would you expect it to take to heal on you?
I've never had one with that large an infection, but ones with just the tip of tails can take many weeks just to either start healing or loose the tip and the new end to seal off.

 

[kizanne]

Yeah my issue is I'm not sure I see any improvement other than behavior. I can tell he's feeling better than the first few days but I'd expect some improvement say the edges to start to heal or something.

 

[teddscau]

Are there any fish vets or piscine pathology labs near you? It might be best to get a skin scraping or something done so it can be cultured and examined under a microscope. You'll be able to more accurately medicate the illness if you know exactly what bacterium is causing it.

 

[kizanne]

No we are a small town. We have one good marine fish store. And it's more a coral store than fish store.

 

[teddscau]

Hmm, wonder if it might be possible to mail a sample to a lab. When I need further pathology work done on my fish, my vet sends the corpse off to a lab in PEI. Well, obviously there's gonna be a lab far closer to you since you live in Florida. You could try contacting the University of Florida, Segrest Farms... Are you sure there aren't any reptile vets or anything near you? I don't know. Just spitballing here.