Seahorses, Live Food, Parasites

[Seaboy_HPT]

Like many other seahorse keepers, I want to ad more of a variety into their diet to give them the best chance of living a long life. Since my horses are Captive Breed, I have been sticking mainly to frozen food like PE Mysis. I hear a lot of other people talking about feeding live Ghost Shrimp or Glass shrimp in addition to frozen foods.

My question is: How can I be sure that when I buy shrimp from someone on line or at a LFS that I will not be introducing parasites that might infect the horse’s internal organs?

Obviously, everyone one I have ever talked to guaranteed they do not sell shrimp with parasites but I have been told by LFS any live food like that is always a 50/50 chance. From what I know, live shrimp to carry some parasites and unfortunately do not tolerate many of the fish meds.

Question 2: Is there any way I could check for parasites, or any kind of method / treatment that might help ensure I keep this possibility to a minimum BEFORE I feed them to the horses?

[Gordonious]

Quarenteening in a tank for a good amount of time with a UV sterilizer. Probably the only way. (sorry for spelling don't have time to DL the spell checker)

I have been looking for a way to obtain feeder shrimp for a while that are safe and then a way to breed them. Let me know if you come up with any other info or where you end up getting some from.

Jon

[Seaboy_HPT]

What about using Metronidazole?

[Gordonious]

I hadn't heard of that. I'd prefer to avoid using any kinds of chemicals and meds. I like that fact that I can unplug the UV sterilzer and know I won't be accidently transporting some of the UV light back to my main tank. Seaboy where had you heard of using this?

[saxman]

it's quite true that live food does have the possibility of harboring parasites. there was a study showing that Vibrio can live on the carapace of pods for over a year (sorry, i forget who did the study).

personally, i wouldn't treat the live food.

feeding live foods is something you need to decide on for yourself unless you have a specimen that will only accept live food. you can mitigate the chances by getting your live food from someone who raises it away from the ocean. George over at SeaWater Express Inc. - Live Marine Feeder Shrimp is a good choice. he will ship you properly sized shrimp that are born and raised in his facility.