Achilles/gold-rim hybrid troubles!

[Keepswiming]

To make a long story short and get to the videos, my brother ordered a hybrid tang and the seller made a mistake, and sent it to the wrong address down in San Diego. My brother called me to pick it up and put it in my qt. When i got the fish home he was in bad shape from being in a popped bag with no oxygen and loosing water into the ice chest. I was 100 percent sure that he would be dead in a hour or so. I went ahead and acclimated him to my qt and gave him fishy mouth to mouth by making him swim and putting his gills at the exit of my chiller hose. He started flapping his fins slowly after 2 hours. Four or so hours later he is kind of swimming around by him self and i really hope he pulls through. The seller is making this right by sending my brother a new fish and told me if i can save it then he is mine. The seller is also send us a couple colonies to lighten our troubles. I am very pleased with http://www.zoacollector.com, by making up for his mistake ten fold even through the shipping company is partially to blame for the condition of the package! Now if i can only keep this fish alive!

This is how he came in...


Acclimation...


Fishy O2 delivery...


Trying to swim!


Getting a little better!


I am curious if fish can have brain damage due to lack of oxygen and loose fine motor control? He couldn't even move at first and now he seems to be learning to swim again or cant control his body fully? I guess we will have to wait and see, thanks for watching!

 

[Robink]

Hope he recovers. Beautiful fish.

 

[vedros74]

Looks like your doing all you can to save him. Best of luck

 

[4FordFamily]

Wow after seeing those videos I would have said to give It a shot (I do the same thing) but would say your chances are 0-10%. That's QUITE an improvement thus far!

The short answer is yes lack of oxygen can and does cause brain damage oftentimes if extreme.

The good news is that from what I see, I don't believe that is an issue at all, and he is a lucky fish. Both to have someone as caring as you to help him and to still be alive.

Your biggest concern at this point would be ammonia burn. If there was a hole in the bag then his water became toxic very fast with ammonia. This is why I don't really like slow drip acclimating - the poo in the bag converts to ammonia exponentially faster with new air and can cause more harm than good.

That said, what you're doing looks really good. Keep a TON of oxygen in the water. When you think you have enough, double it. Ammonia burn makes it hard to breathe. More oxygen will mean that he will recover faster.

If he is alive in 12 hours I would say you have a 90% chance of a recovery, assuming he doesn't come down with ich or something else which is likely given the stress. Proper qt and treatment methods will obviously prevent all of that. Feed him selcon soaked foods, offer him nori rubberbanded to a rock tomorrow if he is still alive - it may surprise you how fast he eats. Remove excess nori each evening so it does not foul the water.

Fish with ammonia burn that make it that first 12-24 hours can take up to a week to eat normally but will often shock you by eating small amounts of food pretty voraciously. They don't seem to fill up like other fish.

I've esperienced all of this a lot with tangs, especially acanthurus tangs like Achilles, powder blue, goldrim, and powder brown.

 

[steelheader.262]

Hope it pulls through, keep us posted on its progress.

 

[WilRams]

It looks like you are doing your best! I hope it pulls through. Please update

 

[Keepswiming]

Thanks All! He is doing a lot better already! I am keeping him in highly oxygenated water with lower lighting conditions to keep him from stressing to much... I know i am not home free, but he has made quite a recovery in such a short period of time!

 

[steelheader.262]

Glad it's doing better, nice work.

 

[Keepswiming]

Wow after seeing those videos I would have said to give It a shot (I do the same thing) but would say your chances are 0-10%. That's QUITE an improvement thus far!

The short answer is yes lack of oxygen can and does cause brain damage oftentimes if extreme.

The good news is that from what I see, I don't believe that is an issue at all, and he is a lucky fish. Both to have someone as caring as you to help him and to still be alive.

Your biggest concern at this point would be ammonia burn. If there was a hole in the bag then his water became toxic very fast with ammonia. This is why I don't really like slow drip acclimating - the poo in the bag converts to ammonia exponentially faster with new air and can cause more harm than good.

That said, what you're doing looks really good. Keep a TON of oxygen in the water. When you think you have enough, double it. Ammonia burn makes it hard to breathe. More oxygen will mean that he will recover faster.

If he is alive in 12 hours I would say you have a 90% chance of a recovery, assuming he doesn't come down with ich or something else which is likely given the stress. Proper qt and treatment methods will obviously prevent all of that. Feed him selcon soaked foods, offer him nori rubberbanded to a rock tomorrow if he is still alive - it may surprise you how fast he eats. Remove excess nori each evening so it does not foul the water.

Fish with ammonia burn that make it that first 12-24 hours can take up to a week to eat normally but will often shock you by eating small amounts of food pretty voraciously. They don't seem to fill up like other fish.

I've esperienced all of this a lot with tangs, especially acanthurus tangs like Achilles, powder blue, goldrim, and powder brown.

I am going to keep him in the best water quality I possibly can while he is being qted. I will make sure to keep an eye out for ich, my Achilles is in the tank above him so I don't want any ich outbreaks. I am going to get him to eat and then figure out if I am going to keep him or my other Achilles because I don't think they will get along :/. It would be nice but a long shot...

 

[4FordFamily]

I am going to keep him in the best water quality I possibly can while he is being qted. I will make sure to keep an eye out for ich, my Achilles is in the tank above him so I don't want any ich outbreaks. I am going to get him to eat and then figure out if I am going to keep him or my other Achilles because I don't think they will get along :/. It would be nice but a long shot...

If adding more than one tang at a time and you mix up the rocks it's possible but not probable

 

[NeuroticAquatics]

Good job! I hope it continues to go well.

 

[ca1ore]

Commendable effort for a stunning fish!

 

[4FordFamily]

Is he still with us?

 

[Keepswiming]

Is he still with us?

Yes sir, swimming almost normal. Next step is to get him to eat!

 

[4FordFamily]

Yes sir, swimming almost normal. Next step is to get him to eat!

Wow I am so very impressed. Great job!

 

[Keepswiming]

Wow I am so very impressed. Great job!

Thanks! If I can only get him to eat I would be happy!

 

[4FordFamily]

Thanks! If I can only get him to eat I would be happy!

Be patient. Keep nori in there rubberbanded to rock. Try red and green nori. Red is often popular to Achilles and goldrim tangs.

Soak mixed frozen foods in garlic and selcon.

Try blackworms many fish find them irresistible.

If that doesn't work locate live brine that's how I got one of my Achilles to eat. He came in very thin and would not eat. Live brine did the trick and within two days ate any brine or mysis and quickly began eating everything in sight.

 

[4FordFamily]

By the way that Achilles goldrim hybrid is absolutely stunning. Best looking of its kind I've seen.

Has a pure Achilles tail and 95% goldrim body, with a darker hue. Very cool

 

[Myka]

Beautiful fish and great job nursing it!

You won't be able to keep both your Achilles though unless you have some mad huge tank.

 

[Keepswiming]

Update.

Today I noticed he has some fin rot going on and the tank water seems a little bit cloudy. My Achilles tang also has a cloudy eye and a little bit of has covering his face. I think I have some sort of bacterial infection going on and I want to treat it before the fish get septic ! I talked to the shipper in Oahu and he recommended running kanamycin with nitrofurazone. These are active ingredients in Furan-2 and kanaplex by seachem has anyone had any experience with these because after my big water change I am going to run this combo and hope for the best for all of my fish in qt. I am looking for any LEGIT knowledge about this matter and will do some research myself. At this point I just want to save my fish !