Achilles And Gem Tang Ich!

[4FordFamily]

Ok so I do have a good story for you. I had an Achilles that got velvet so bad he lost an eye to an infection. He looked at bad as yours. Like yours, it laid on it’s side and for days I thought it would be a goner. It kept breathing. Day 4 or so it began to swim a little somewhat controlled for small distances. After a week it could cruise. This fish lived and was even my “pair” fish to another Achilles tang until it abruptly died, or it may have been the power outage on vacation— I cannot recall but I was absolutely astonished! I’d never seen any fish come back from anything like that, almost exactly as you describe!

Good luck, keep us posted! I hope it does even better than “Cyclops”!

 

[Daniel400G]

Thanks 4ford .going to keep at it .
I have already spent 2 times the cash that I paid for the fish.
I can't just let it die with trying everything!
Thanks for the story,!

 

[mattgsa]

How's the fish doing, I really hoping he pull through.

 

[Daniel400G]

not good.
Fins look shredded and hes on his side now......

 

[Daniel400G]

I dont think he has eaten since friday,
Looks really bad,
But thanks for asking, not going to give up just yet

 

[Big G]

Here's some food for thought. Desperate measures by Humblefish:

Salvage protocol for very sick fish.

Almost daily I read a post from someone describing a fish sick from either ich or velvet and can predict that it will not make it to the morning.

There are several techniques that can be employed to reduce the metabolic demands on the fish, reduce stress, decrease the damage from its immune response and possibly keep the fish alive until you are able to eradicate the parasite.

1. Decrease the temperature to 72F for most tropical fish.

2. Decrease the salinity to 1.017 or lower

3. Increase the oxygen saturation to greater than 150% by the addition of pure O2.

4. Turn the lights off

5. Intramuscular injection of dexamethasone at 0.5 mg/kg

Though I have never used all of these techniques together, I have used them all and have been surprised to find that fish swimming the following morning. These are recommendations and should be adjusted to the situation.

 

[Daniel400G]

Hello Everyone,

So it's been one year since my last post.

I have started over in the last year.

Took down my old tank,
Bought a new DT tank, red sea 650 peninsula
Vertex 200i skimmer
Cor 20 return
Apex,
Dosing, alk, mag, calc.
57 watt UV light

I have setup a qt for my corals,
20 gallon tank.
Nothing goes in my Dt without 80 days in qt.

55 gallon qt tank for fish.
4 weeks minimum with copper before going in DT.

Fish list,
3 barbonius anthias,
1 Springereye damsel
2 clowns,
4 inch Gem tang,
4 inch Zebra tang
3 inch Achilles tang,

The Zebra tang is a great fish, hes like a dog,
When I am near the tank follows me, it's like he wagging his tail when I'm near the tank.
I can hand feed the Gem and Zebra.

The issue is the Zebra chases the Achilles.
I over feed to try and avoid food aggression.
Just chasing and has been like that for a few weeks now.

I do want to put in 2 to 3 more tangs.

What would you recommend?

 

[Daniel400G]

I had a crosshatch.
He jumped out of the tank last week

 

[Daniel400G]

Picture

 

[Daniel400G]

More pictures

 

[wadesims2000]

I feel for you that’s one hell of an expensive mistake

 

[Daniel400G]

Now I have a mesh top on the tank

 

[Daniel400G]

What about a Chevron tang?

 

[Daniel400G]

What about a Chevron tang?

 

[mitch91175]

Chevron Tangs are beautiful fish and not aggressive. You should be fine with adding one AFTER it goes through QT, but you'll have to worry about if the Achilles Tang will the aggressive towards it for sure. If you have issues with the Achilles Tang already being aggressive towards other fish, I would say skip the Chevron Tang altogether. Man you are a trooper. You have lost a lot of $$$ in fish throughout all of this. Don't wish this on my worse enemy. Best you can do now is to educate any friends that you have about your experiences (sure you have done so already).

So many people that sell fish aren't even doing what is necessary to at minimum guarantee that you do not get diseases like velvet that can completely eradicate your entire tank. I think a lot of it has to do with the minimal amount that they can profit on fish so they do the least amount of work to ensure a healthy specimen. I've been in your shoes not too long ago and now I only buy my fish from a trusted source. I quickly learned that you have to get the fish through a proper QT to ensure you do not loose everything. Wish you the best going forward.

Something that you can do is to buy your own copper test kit. When you buy a fish and if it is local, ask them what type of copper they use and test the water yourself. At least then you'll know if they know what they are doing (still recommend you doing your own QT if you do not know the individual you decide to buy the fish from).

Think about it if you ask the store/person for a sample of their water and they say no. Then you just buy from someone else that will do so. I've personally never done this, but just think if more people actually did something like this. Maybe we won't have so many of these threads about all fish dying because of diseases.

 

[Daniel400G]

Thanks for the advise,

My qt is as follows,
One week feeding heavy, make sure there eating,
Then day 8 goes half prazi and half copper dose, cupermine
Then 3 weeks with full Parzsi and copper.
I keep my copper at .4 to .5,

I would not put anything in my DT with doing above.

Maybe I will stay away from tangs,

Looking for rare fish.

Any other suggestions?

 

[mitch91175]

Thanks for the advise,

My qt is as follows,
One week feeding heavy, make sure there eating,
Then day 8 goes half prazi and half copper dose, cupermine
Then 3 weeks with full Parzsi and copper.
I keep my copper at .4 to .5,

I would not put anything in my DT with doing above.

Maybe I will stay away from tangs,

Looking for rare fish.

Any other suggestions?

Depends on budget and your desire for your tank. Doing a reef will limit your options for sure.

 

[mitch91175]

Have you considered fairy wrasse? There are great selections in that category of fish. Rhomboid, Flame, Lineatus are a few really nice ones.

 

[Daniel400G]

Have you considered fairy wrasse? There are great selections in that category of fish. Rhomboid, Flame, Lineatus are a few really nice ones.

I have 2 leonardi wrasees 2.5 inch going through qt right now.

 

[mitch91175]

I have 2 leonardi wrasees 2.5 inch going through qt right now.

Be careful with wrasse and copper treatment. They sometimes do not do well in it.

 

[Daniel400G]

These guys will only get max .3,
Is there any other copper that will work ?