Pulled trigger on Achilles tang.

[Kworker]

So, as I am here eating my egg sandwich trying to keep myself stress free in the time before my CPA exam I want to seek some advice on the best way to carry on with my Achilles.

Yesterday I was in the neighborhood of a LFS, did not plan on coming home with anything at all and just stopping by. I saw an achilles tang who I knew was there for a week or so. Except this time he was not so happy and freaking out. Doing a bob and quick jolt forward. Still had most of his color and picking at food sitting there on the glass bottom. He was in a tank FULL of damsels. I immediately asked how much they are willing to do on the "achilles who is freaking out" I than headed right home with him, and dripped him up to a more proper salinity of 1.019 from 1.014. The holding tank he was in was a 2'x2' frag tank with little to no flow.

As of right now, he is in a 40breeder QT (permanent QT) so there is plenty beneficial bacteria among micro inverts. Sponge filter and two powerheads at 400gph each. He has been playing in the current and eating reef frenzy frozen food, picking at nori and colored up quite a bit. He does not seem lethargic like he was in the LFS.

He has been occasionally rubbing himself along the glass bottom or pvc fitting I put into the tank but is not showing any visible signs of a external parasite. I am hesitant to jump onto treating him with Cu.

Those of you who have possibly nursed a Achilles back from a definitive death or just went through the QT process with one please share some Do or Don'ts with this beautiful fish.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Thanks for trying out our Reef Frenzy foods! Many people on another forum have had great luck with RF and also our Herbivore Frenzy® when trying to get these fish to eat in QT. It sounds like you are off to a good start by providing him more room and a nutritious diet. Keep us informed of how he does over the next few weeks.

Larry

 

[Kworker]

Thanks for trying out our Reef Frenzy foods! Many people on another forum have had great luck with RF and also our Herbivore Frenzy® when trying to get these fish to eat in QT. It sounds like you are off to a good start by providing him more room and a nutritious diet. Keep us informed of how he does over the next few weeks.

Larry

Thanks for reply, he has shown a few white spots, most noticeable one on pec fin. I put a 10gal cupramine dosage in there to slowly increase over time if he doesn't react negatively to it. Way I see it is, either copper or ich will get him at this point. Ich won't go away on its own so the cupramine is a necessary evil. This morning he didn't show much interest to eating but he appeared to be okay and just swimming in the current.

 

[Kworker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gJJ5scXoE

Heres a video I took just a minute ago after I fed him some RF and gave some fresh purple seaweed. His twitchyness is what makes me believe he has ICH.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

I see a little flashing in the beginning. Have you observed any white spots on him?

I like to get a fish eating for a few days before ramping up the Cu, unless it is a really bad onset. You may want to cut the powerheads at feeding time just so the food stays together a little longer and is easy to find with less effort.

This blue hippo came in covered in Ich and after treating with Cu it cleared up and by week three it was eating like a pig, literally waiting for me to open the lid to feed. You can also try shredding your seaweed and adding it to the cup of water you are thawing the RF in. Use about a tablespoon of water and let the seaweed soak up the seafood brine after thawing. BTW- if you ever need a quality sheet nori the one we offer is tested to be free from 400+ pollutants, heavy metals and radiation. The user submitted comments on our Facebook demonstrate that many finicky tangs and angels destroy it, while ignoring others. Getting your fish to eat in QT is often half the battle.

Good luck!

[video=youtube_share;rbM9IX9iYXc]http://youtu.be/rbM9IX9iYXc[/video]

 

[Kworker]

I see some white spots, hard for me to fully determine it is ICH but the fact that he is twitching, has some white spots, rubs himself on things in the QT and I know for a fact the LFS he has has ICH very present in the system. I saw a hippo tang there a couple days prior to coming home with him completely covered up in Ich.

I am going very slowly with the Cu, he has been going after your regular frozen. I should try to check out if the LFS I usually buy your food from has the herbivore. I will definitely soak the seaweed in the juice that comes off from thawing out though, thanks for that idea.

Overall I feel He has a great shot, he was definitely going to die by the end of the day or next day when I brought him home. Now, as you can see he has been swimming around and does react to my hand above the tank for food. I only began slowly adding Cu because he has been eating so readily. I have prazipro as well, but chose not to go with that because in this case I feel this is Ich.

 

[ReefFrenzy]

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Send me a PM with the name of the LFS you go to and I will see what their last order was. We just shipped some monster orders to Long Island Monday for delivery tomorrow. Oh and one more thing in case you didn't know, DO NOT run a UV sterilizer on that system with the Cu. It will cause the copper to become toxic rapidly.

 

[Kworker]

It sounds like you are doing everything right. Send me a PM with the name of the LFS you go to and I will see what their last order was. We just shipped some monster orders to Long Island Monday for delivery tomorrow. Oh and one more thing in case you didn't know, DO NOT run a UV sterilizer on that system with the Cu. It will cause the copper to become toxic rapidly.

Pm sent.

 

[fishroomlady]

no expert here but I think the tang looks beautiful. I would hold off on adding more medication and observe for a bit....

 

[Kworker]

What would cause him to regurgitate fresh seaweed? Normal? I was watching him for several minutes than he let a good amount of red seaweed up.

 

[joelpeavy]

Nothing of importance to add.

Just wanted to say he is gorgeous and hope things work out with him. I've always heard how hard it is to keep an Achilles long term and anxious to see how it works out for you. Best of luck on this one.

 

[Eienna]

It's possible he just got too much of a throatful. Sometimes my fish will spit up a little when they try to eat too big a pile of food too fast.

If he starts to react badly to the cupramine, I personally would give a full water change and try Rid-Ich+ (NOT Ich Attack by the same company.) I don't know why it hasn't caught on - it's supposed to work for marine fish ich and is safer than copper.

Other than that, here's hoping for the best!

 

[jen2828]

I've had my guy almost 3 years now (prepare for quick growth)...he's a little over 7" now. When he was in QT I treated for flukes but held off on the cupramine to observe...

 

[Kworker]

Nothing of importance to add.

Just wanted to say he is gorgeous and hope things work out with him. I've always heard how hard it is to keep an Achilles long term and anxious to see how it works out for you. Best of luck on this one.

Thank you!

It's possible he just got too much of a throatful. Sometimes my fish will spit up a little when they try to eat too big a pile of food too fast.

If he starts to react badly to the cupramine, I personally would give a full water change and try Rid-Ich+ (NOT Ich Attack by the same company.) I don't know why it hasn't caught on - it's supposed to work for marine fish ich and is safer than copper.

Other than that, here's hoping for the best!

Thank you, I am dosing it very slowly to monitor how he reacts and the only reason I am even doing that is because he was readily eating. I will try feeding tomorrow and see how it goes before I pull the plug on the Cu and look elsewhere, thanks for suggestion!

 

[Kworker]

I've had my guy almost 3 years now (prepare for quick growth)...he's a little over 7" now. When he was in QT I treated for flukes but held off on the cupramine to observe...

I am hoping for quick growth! Since that would mean he makes it through to the Display. I have Prazipro to be able to treat for flukes But it appears Ich is present here, but is not obvious. He is twitching and doing the rubbing every so often in irritation. I was going to go safe and treat with Prazipro, but I read Cu will kill pretty much any parasite he may have so I figured best go that route and start of very slow. I dosed a 10.5gal amount into the 40breeder last night and tested today during dinner time and got little to no reading on a API copper kit, it only goes in .25 increments. I dosed another 10.5 gal worth afterwards and will attempt feeding tomorrow morning.

 

[Kworker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqqAsBjldXs

Updated pic, in the process of clearing up the water from free floating stuff..

If you see in the poor quality video I have.. There is white behind his eyes. And some white splotches on his body. Any clue? I started introducing small amounts of Cupramine the other day. Just tested the water with Salifert kit and getting below .10

 

[Eienna]

Hard to tell.
I'm no expert, but it looks to me like he might have ich and maybe a little secondary bacterial thing going on, especially on the fringe of the dorsal fin...keep the water nice and clean besides the copper and watch closely.

 

[Kworker]

After doing a bit more research, when I get home from work I will change from treating with Cupramine to a Tank Transfer Method. I am too afraid about the effects copper will have internally on the fish. I have spare 55 gal I can swap with for the tank transferring, along with a reliable second heater.

 

[miyags]

If you are treating with cupramine you need to test with Seachem Copper multitest, to get the correct reading of copper. Your fish still looks strong in video. I've treated many fish with cupramine with no problems. They do slow down on eating, and my copperbanded butterfly stopped for about 6 days before eating again.

 

[miyags]

Your fish dose have ich. I would not be moving him around right now and stressing him out even more. I'd even turn down flow a little, so he can rest.