Pouch Evacuation for Seahorses

[Beccadawn]

Thanks so much everyone! I now have a much happier little guy. I was not nearly applying enough pressure before & I don't think I actually found the pouch the first couple of times that I tried. I'm not that coordinated, so I found it much easier without the bobby pin & I just sort of spread the little pouch opening apart with my fingers on one hand & rolled up his belly like toothpaste, with my other hand. Hopefully this does not persist but if it does I now feel much more confident.

Thanks Again,
Becky

[4lti7ude]

Great news that you got the bubble out!

Not to hijack the thread or nothing, but do seahorses get this in the wild?
If they do what do they do to get rid of it??

[Beccadawn]

My sister asked me the same thing this morning when I was trying to get the bubbles out....

[Diana]

Are you running a skimmer on the tank? Sometimes micro bubbles can cause this...

[rayjay]

Diana, there is no documentation that this actually happens and is no longer considered to be a cause of an inflated pouch by the more knowledgeable people on the org. In fact, there are many many seahorse tanks out there now with microbubbles (for one reason or another) and with no problems of this pouch emphysema (PE).
As mentioned before, it is a very common experience with the barbouri species but in most other species it is much less prevalent.
Present day thoughts are that the pouch inflation is a result of a chemistry imbalance and treatment with Diamox is needed if the condition persists.
See "Working Notes", A guide to seahorse diseases.