Do you have problems with Achilles tangs?
- Thread starter Armon_p
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Lazys Coral House
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It is a 125g tank. Connected to a 150g Frag/Refugium Tank and a 55g sump.
jen2828
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You'll be upgrading eventually lazylivin ;-) Our Achilles and purple started out in a 125 about 4 years ago when we first got them. 4 years later they have way outgrown that tank (Achilles 8" & purple 7"). We had to go to a longer and wider tank.
Lazys Coral House
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I may but likely will sell it to someone with a larger tank and purchase another small one. I just don't have the room for a larger tank. I wish I did but then again a lot can change in 4 years.
Palting
Active Member
Take a look at the video posted by dailylivin on this thread. If your tang the same white spots, then your fish AND your tank now both have Marine Ich (Cryptocryon irritans). You have to treat both fish and tank.
1. Fish treatment. You have to take the fish out of the main tank and into a quarantine/hospital tank. Do not be tempted to leave him alone because he is eating. The spots can disappear, but all it means is that the Ich cycle is simply progressing. It does not mean it or the tank is cured. Your best chance of curing the disease is one of 3 methods: hyposalinity, tank transfer, or copper. You can easily look these up. Nothing else consistently works.
2. Tank treatment. The tank has to stay fishless for at least 6 weeks, preferably 8. Without fish, the Ich parasite will die off in that period.
The Ich parasite is a curse in saltwater aquariums. Some people choose to live with it and take the risk of fish death and some do alright, some people do not want to risk it and so QT and treat all fish. It's up to you. I suggest you treat, especially if you want to put more tangs in your tank, like the hippo.
1. Fish treatment. You have to take the fish out of the main tank and into a quarantine/hospital tank. Do not be tempted to leave him alone because he is eating. The spots can disappear, but all it means is that the Ich cycle is simply progressing. It does not mean it or the tank is cured. Your best chance of curing the disease is one of 3 methods: hyposalinity, tank transfer, or copper. You can easily look these up. Nothing else consistently works.
2. Tank treatment. The tank has to stay fishless for at least 6 weeks, preferably 8. Without fish, the Ich parasite will die off in that period.
The Ich parasite is a curse in saltwater aquariums. Some people choose to live with it and take the risk of fish death and some do alright, some people do not want to risk it and so QT and treat all fish. It's up to you. I suggest you treat, especially if you want to put more tangs in your tank, like the hippo.
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Yea no. That's by the book, but ick will always be in your tank, it's a matter of how your water conditions are, and a fish will not die from ick if it is eating. Achilles tangs have a special relationship with ick
Palting
Active Member
LOL! Okay, Armon_p. I've had an Ich battle with my 4 tangs when I first had them, and I won. My tank is completely Ich free and has been so for the last 5 years. I've gotten into too many arguments over Ich, and won't do so again. So, good luck!
SantaMonicaHelp
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Here it is today. Kind of blurry, it is hard to get a good pic, he is almost always moving.
Just want to stop and say this, Your tank looks amazing. It's colorful and the lighting just perfect!
-Y
sherita
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Ich free is completely possible. The ich parasite has been studied up one side and down the other. Keeping an ich free system is possible, but you have to be willing to do the work. The old myth about ich being in all marine tanks is just that, a myth. Remove the fish to quarantine and treat, leave the tank fishless for 8 weeks. Ich is host dependent, and without a fish host, it will die out. Ich does not rise from the dead, or hibernate for a year only to show up suddenly out of nowhere.
Let me repeat one more time, an ich free system is totally possible, but you have to be willing to do the work.
Let me repeat one more time, an ich free system is totally possible, but you have to be willing to do the work.
ca1ore
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Of course ich free is possible, not easy though. Even though I QT obsessively, I have had it sneak through.
Achilles is an extremely high strung fish. Most important thing is to get a healthy specimen; one that is eating. Next most important thing is to QT, both to treat for the inevitable ich, and get it eating different kinds of foods. After that, tank size is critical with this fish; I'd not even consider one in anything less than a 6 ft tank. Otherwise they pace, and I really hate that. AT does not have to be the first tang, nor the last, but it probably ought to be the only Acanthurus genus in the tank. I tried an Achilles with a powder brown once ...... once ...... It did not go well. Lastly use an acclimation/socialization box to introduce to the display.
Achilles is an extremely high strung fish. Most important thing is to get a healthy specimen; one that is eating. Next most important thing is to QT, both to treat for the inevitable ich, and get it eating different kinds of foods. After that, tank size is critical with this fish; I'd not even consider one in anything less than a 6 ft tank. Otherwise they pace, and I really hate that. AT does not have to be the first tang, nor the last, but it probably ought to be the only Acanthurus genus in the tank. I tried an Achilles with a powder brown once ...... once ...... It did not go well. Lastly use an acclimation/socialization box to introduce to the display.
maroun.c
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My Tank Thread
I've tried 3 Achilles (at different times) 2 died from velvet in Q tank after 10 days, they both ate from day one. the issue turned out to be that the LFS i got them from was keeping a minimal dose of copper in the tanks which kept the velvet alive and invisible.
Third one I got supposedly quarantined, turned out to have a sever infestation of flukes and died after 2 weeks in quarantine.
Then I took one from a friends tank that he had for 3 years and was doing good. placed in introduction box for 3-4 days before release in tank, my 7 years old Hippo, 2 yellows and Purple all acted as they didn't see him, he swam in the tank at the moment of release as he lived there all his life. Unfortunately lost it few month later to a skin eating disease that somehow went through my quarantine and killed of course the most expensive and hardest to find fish in the tank.
I will definitely try again as it's my dream fish but will have to be from a reputed store and fully quarantined and it'll go to a large introduction tank to make sure its perfectly healthy before going to the DT
As for tangs aggression, my hippo is the dominant tang and I find it to be less mean than yellows and purple. he'd hit on a tang from time to time but it's just a simple hit and no chasing around... he also keeps the peace when the yellows hit on any other tang. I just introduced a tiny yellow eye kole and 2 blond naso and it went super smooth.
Third one I got supposedly quarantined, turned out to have a sever infestation of flukes and died after 2 weeks in quarantine.
Then I took one from a friends tank that he had for 3 years and was doing good. placed in introduction box for 3-4 days before release in tank, my 7 years old Hippo, 2 yellows and Purple all acted as they didn't see him, he swam in the tank at the moment of release as he lived there all his life. Unfortunately lost it few month later to a skin eating disease that somehow went through my quarantine and killed of course the most expensive and hardest to find fish in the tank.
I will definitely try again as it's my dream fish but will have to be from a reputed store and fully quarantined and it'll go to a large introduction tank to make sure its perfectly healthy before going to the DT
As for tangs aggression, my hippo is the dominant tang and I find it to be less mean than yellows and purple. he'd hit on a tang from time to time but it's just a simple hit and no chasing around... he also keeps the peace when the yellows hit on any other tang. I just introduced a tiny yellow eye kole and 2 blond naso and it went super smooth.
tanksman
Active Member
You know I don't understand how people are saying the fish get ick just by adding another fish one of the two fish had to already have ick, I mean it's a parasite it has to be present for a fish to get it so if you're properly quarantine your fish ick should be out of the picture
Empress
Valuable Member
Unless quarantine went wrong somehow. Maybe treatment was cut too short or medication wasn't at therapeutic levels???
