Fish veterinary scientists have reported a case of fibrosarcoma in the brood pouch of a seahorse.
The findings, which have just been published in the Journal of Wildlife Medicine, are based on a study of a male Hippocampus erectus which was suffering from a brood pouch swelling, weight loss and anorexia.
While flushing the pouch with salt water and enroflaxicin can sometimes help in these cases, here, it proved ineffective. The scientists used radiographs and a physical examination to find out that there was a nodular swelling, called a fibrosarcoma, on the wall of the pouch.
Unfortunately, although the tissue was removed during an operation, the seahorse didn't survive. Further post-mortem examination showed that it was a malignant mesenchymal tumor with a collagenous stroma.
For more details see: Willens S, Dunn JL, Frasca S (2004) - Fibrosarcoma of the brood pouch in an aquarium-reared lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus). J Zoo Wildl Med. 2004 Mar; 35(1): 107-9