Aquarium's ailing seadragon gets loving care
It's the same infection that claimed the other two seadragons earlier this year — a tough loss for the aquarium, where the three rare and fragile fish had been treated like celebrities since their "Myth, Magic & Mystery" exhibit opened in spring 2000.
A relative of the seahorse, the foot-long seadragon with her leafy appendages resembles a batch of floating seaweed as she swims, providing a lesson in adapting to habitat through camouflage and mimicry.
"She's beautiful, which makes her high-maintenance," Robertson quipped.
The delicate intubation treatment has occurred above the seadragon's opened tank each Saturday morning for the past three months.
Robertson aims a thin catheter, attached to a syringe, at the seadragon's narrow snout. It's like threading a needle, but Robertson never forces the issue. As volunteer Debra Harrison lightly clutches the seadragon with a gloved hand to keep her from wriggling away, the fish accepts the catheter, which contains alternating doses of ground mysid shrimp, the finicky seadragon's food of choice, and Ciprofloxacin, which doesn't taste as good.
Her tail flopping in the water, she stubbornly keeps her throat closed for a half-minute or so before finally taking in the catheter all the way. This is learn-as-you-go marine science so it's only an educated guess, but Robertson figures she opens her throat at the moment she tastes the shrimp, which he has strategically positioned at the catheter tip.
Robertson slowly presses his thumb on the syringe and the food, then the Cipro, then more food enter the seadragon through the catheter. Robertson pulls out the tube, Harrison lets go and the seadragon — a little stressed but, hey, it was good for her — swims away. The treatment takes about three minutes.
"She's getting feistier, and that's a good sign," Robertson said. "We have seen a remarkable change in her level of awareness and alertness during treatment. She's handling it very, very well."
She has gotten her color back and is showing few symptoms of her illness anymore. But she remains quarantined in her tank, save for a few limpets imported to control algae.
The Seattle Aquarium, which acquired the three leafy seadragons on loan from the Dallas World Aquarium, has become a laboratory in the treatment of the protected species, which in the wild live exclusively among the kelp and seagrass in the shallow reefs off the southern shores of Australia. While several U.S. aquariums exhibit seadragons, only a handful have had to nurse a sick one back to health.
"A lot of this is empirical; there are no books written on treating seadragons," said Dr. George Sanders, a local veterinarian for aquatic animals who is consulting on treatment. "It's a series of educated guesses based on the experiences of others who have treated seadragons with problems of a similar nature."
Sanders said the seadragon's external skeleton made injecting an antibiotic not viable, as needle holes could expose her to other infections. He said graceful handling during treatment is vital because her leafy appendages, which are tissue and bone, can break off easily, creating more problems.
The only male of the Seattle seadragon trio died March 8, five days after biologists noticed strange nodules on his fins. Pathology reports came back inconclusive.
After the second seadragon died May 22, pathologists determined the cause as mycobacteriosis, fairly common for the species and likely spread through water.
Robertson said it will never be known if one, both or all three seadragons arrived in Seattle with the disease dormant or if it was acquired while in captivity.
Sanders said no one can even say for certain if the remaining seadragon is afflicted with the same mycobacterium, just that she had shown similar symptoms as the two that died. Treatment is proceeding on the assumption she was exposed to the same germs, which can take a long time to destroy.
While the aquarium would like to replace the two lost seadragons, "we won't put another one in the tank until we are convinced this one is cured," Robertson said.
Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293