Achilles Tang Primer

Tracey2 said:
I added a new fish recently, I did QT but she looked good so I didn't treat, now everyone has ich including my achillies. I have had this guy for almost a year and he eats great and still is, will he recover, has anyone had them survive this?
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Mine has had some spots on and off for nearly a year in my DT. As long as he has been eating I haven't worried about it. The two things that have helped my tank the most with the achilles tang have been running ozone through my skimmer and running a diatom filter. The diatom filter has really been amazing. Although it won't remove ich completely from the system, the diatom powder filters down to one micron and thus has removed the majority of the free swimming ich from the tank. A lot of people will poo poo using a diatom filter in a reef tank as being antiquated but since I started running mine periodically I have only seen improvements in my achilles health. He has gone from consistently having 20 spots to maybe 2-3 at the most.
 
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ryanrid said:
So it is not so ciritical to eat a lot right away such as the finiky anthias and regals?

the thing i find strange is it will not touch food in the morning but eats ok in the afternoon/evening.
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Only if the fish is extremely thin or emaciated looking.
 
here is a pic after 1 week in my QT - approx 30gal (115L) 24x24x14
achilles.jpg

sorry for the phone pic.

eating well and gaining some weight now with colour improving. fish is 50-60mm body length and approx 75-80mm including tail.

diet is now

1/2 cube hikari brine spirulina daily (fed over 3 feeds)
4x2 inch nori mix of red, purple and green daily.

no signs of parasites yet.
 
My achilles is still alive, but he is totally covered in ich. He's been completely covered for the past 2 weeks now, and tomorrow I will have had him for 3 weeks. Honestly, I have my doubts about this ich ever going away on its own. I'm seriously still considering moving him into my quarantine tank so I can treat him. Do you guys think an achilles that is totally covered in ich has any chance of surviving if he goes untreated? I know that moving him to qt will stress him out, but I think it's what it would take to save him. He still only eats nori, and doesn't look as active as he was when I first got him.
 
IFbettas said:
My achilles is still alive, but he is totally covered in ich. He's been completely covered for the past 2 weeks now, and tomorrow I will have had him for 3 weeks. Honestly, I have my doubts about this ich ever going away on its own. I'm seriously still considering moving him into my quarantine tank so I can treat him. Do you guys think an achilles that is totally covered in ich has any chance of surviving if he goes untreated? I know that moving him to qt will stress him out, but I think it's what it would take to save him. He still only eats nori, and doesn't look as active as he was when I first got him.
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Well I can tell you my achilles hybrid has been covered for about 6 weeks now. He is still swimminmg around and eating like normal but is covered BAD.....I find him swimming in the stream of the vortech all the time. I am just leaving things alone....

AchillesCrypt2.jpg
 
IFbettas said:
My achilles is still alive, but he is totally covered in ich. He's been completely covered for the past 2 weeks now, and tomorrow I will have had him for 3 weeks. Honestly, I have my doubts about this ich ever going away on its own. I'm seriously still considering moving him into my quarantine tank so I can treat him. Do you guys think an achilles that is totally covered in ich has any chance of surviving if he goes untreated? I know that moving him to qt will stress him out, but I think it's what it would take to save him. He still only eats nori, and doesn't look as active as he was when I first got him.
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Sorry to hear your achilles is not improving. If you move him to QT I would treat with Crypto-Pro for the ich as it is safer to use than copper. The only issue I see is you will have to remove all fish from your DT and treat them to get rid of the ich at this point. Just treating the achilles will mean as soon as you put him back in the DT he will become reinfected. Also you will need to leave your DT fallow for 6-8 weeks to make sure all the ich has died off. If it seems like his behavior and health are going south I would treat him now before it gets any worse. If you wait too long now it might be too late. Good luck though in either case.
 
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Also, just to clarify for those who are following along with this thread. I chose to be proactive with my filtration while leaving my achilles in my DT to fight off the ich. I am utilizing an 200mg ozone reactor with my skimmer, an oversized UV filter, and a XL diatom filter to simulate the dilution effect of a large body of water (ie. the ocean). I would not recommend attempting leaving a sick achilles in a tank that did not have some sort of filter to combat the ich from taking over your system. My first attempt with this fish ended like so many others until I utilized in particular the ozone reactor. The diatom filter has really helped to rid the achilles of the last few spots. This is just my experiences and hopefully it will help others make the right decisions for their situations but if I did not have these in place I would be pulling my fish and treating as I would not be confident that it could fight off the infection by itself.
 
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ironwill723 said:
Also, just to clarify for those who are following along with this thread. I chose to be proactive with my filtration while leaving my achilles in my DT to fight off the ich. I am utilizing an 200mg ozone reactor with my skimmer, an oversized UV filter, and a XL diatom filter to simulate the dilution effect of a large body of water (ie. the ocean). I would not recommend attempting leaving a sick achilles in a tank that did not have some sort of filter to combat the ich from taking over your system. My first attempt with this fish ended like so many others until I utilized in particular the ozone reactor. The diatom filter has really helped to rid the achilles of the last few spots. This is just my experiences and hopefully it will help others make the right decisions for their situations.
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what UV unit are you using?
 
Tonight my achilles looks really bad (worse than RBU1's hybrid). His eyes are cloudy, he's breathing heavily, and he isn't too active. Amazingly, he's still eating nori. I'm going to try to catch him tonight and put him in my 55 gallon qt. I'm planning on using hypo because it seems like the least stressful treatment. I seriously doubt he will come out of this, but I'll keep you guys updated.
 
IFbettas said:
Tonight my achilles looks really bad (worse than RBU1's hybrid). His eyes are cloudy, he's breathing heavily, and he isn't too active. Amazingly, he's still eating nori. I'm going to try to catch him tonight and put him in my 55 gallon qt. I'm planning on using hypo because it seems like the least stressful treatment. I seriously doubt he will come out of this, but I'll keep you guys updated.
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cloudy eyes could be flukes?
 
Get him in qt!!!! I lost my Achilles in November to this same behavior after the outbreak. He sat in front of an MP40 24/7. I'm supposing the rush of water helped him combat the itching of the parasite. This will not go away on its' own!!!

Also, I would never put an Achilles in hyposalinity. This is one touchy fish when it comes to manipulated specific gravity. Copper is your best bet as soon as possible. Good luck.
 
If you are going to use copper, use cupramine, while you are at it you can use prazipro at the same time too, just for good measure.
 
i have treated 4 achilles in the past the only treatment i would recommend is copper either cupramine or coppersafe i prefer coppersafe but at double the dose of recommendations never had luck with hypo
 
Hello everyone, I used this thread to help aid me in added and Achilles. My experience is this, I found a small 2-1/2-3" juvi, barely any orange on him at all. My LFS held on to him for 2 weeks. He was eating, so that was a good sign.

After reading 14 pages of info back then, I decided that QT was not how I would prep the fish before I released it into the display. I added him to the tank after 3 hours or dripping.

Immediately afterwards he disappeared and hid for the rest of the evening. For the next week or so, he did not eat at all. After the second week, i got him eating nori. i had to break it up in my fingers before he caught on. After the 3rd week, he developed ich. Not a lot, but enough that I was concerned.

I then started soaking mysis in garlic and fed garlic flakes. 2 weeks later, he beat the ich.
I have now had the fish for over the one year mark. I think I've past the first hurdle, but I'm still not out of the wood yet. I find that this fish is very sensitive and will break out with ich every once and a while. By break out, I only mean 3-5 spots. I will immediately feed garlic soaked mysis and he will be back to normal in a few days.

I wish everyone luck with this beautiful fish. QT the fish if you have the resources, but it won't guarantee success

Here's when I first got him, he's in the center of the tank and all black
cbd0ccad.jpg


and now :)
69178e97.jpg


-dan
 
ironwill723 said:
I would not recommend copper with any tang especially an achilles as they are super sensitive. Good luck though.

Here is a thread on crypto pro...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1974075
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I agree 100% copper is horrible for tangs.. they will live like 5 months past that! lol (could b lucky though)

i brought my salt down to like .06-.07... the damage occurred when i went up to quick.. ugh.. I have another in qt now.. going to watch him for 2 weeks and see wts up...
 
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