quarantining my achilles tang

[DTz]

ok guys .. ive just purchased a very nice achilles tang for my 280 gallons fish only tank. what i plan to do is to quarantine it using CP on a 5 gallon bucket and to do water change every 24 hours. will b adding prime on every water change incase of ammonia. how many days would u advice me to keep it in CP and how many days on observation before it can b added to my DT.

ive always got added insurance that i can always dose CP into my display tank which i did 6 mths ago when there was sign of ich and all my fishes recovered and is all clear for the past 6 mths. any advice r welcome. thx in advance

 

[Reef AquaCult]

5 gallon bucket for achilles tang QT? You should consider using larger QT vessel whether it be larger plastic container vs 20-30 gallon aquarium. What is the size of the achilles? I would be concerned about stress and water quality/stability with your plan. Sure a couple damsels or clownfish that would be fine, but you're talking an expert-level fish here.

 

[DTz]

5 gallon bucket for achilles tang QT? You should consider using larger QT vessel whether it be larger plastic container vs 20-30 gallon aquarium. What is the size of the achilles? I would be concerned about stress and water quality/stability with your plan. Sure a couple damsels or clownfish that would be fine, but you're talking an expert-level fish here.

am using a 5 gallon bucket(for 2 weeks) because the fish store i got it from uses the same and it was eating like a pig when i got it. thought it'll b ok if its only for 10-14days of QT. and it'll b much easier for me to do 100% waterchange daily if its 5 gallon bucket.

 

[Gareth elliott]

2 weeks in a bucket?

for qt i use a 20 gallon tank and 20 gallon metal stand from petco. Both togther cost $40 when they run a sale. If only doing 2 weeks of cp, you will want another 2 weeks of observation.
My qt is in an unheated room of my house, 2 heaters is enough to maintain 78. Cheap somatic reactor with $6 in nylon scrubbers for a filter and cheap power heads and a backup sponge filter, mainly for air. I have had no issues maintaining very small tangs for 30 days this way. A qt doesnt need to be expensive. Switched to copper as not as effected by biofilm as cp. so just keep my qt running full time. In between fish i run carbon and purigen. So stays fully cycled, less water changes.
Also unsure of cp’s effectiveness for 2 weeks common treatment is 30 days.

use dry erase markers to count days for me lol.

besides the clowns theres a small hippo tang in there. Thats in the green tube.

 

[Smprc]

Just going to add that Humblefish has updated the CP protocol if you care to read it. CP the tang for 10 days, then place him in an observation non medicated tank for another few weeks. As far as the 5 gallon bucket, if you feel comfortable with that go with it. But I highly recommend you set up a 10 to 15 gallon observation/qt tank for future use.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

They need strong flow as well. An additional power head would be ideal for this specific fish and I am not sure how the powerhead would do in a 5 gallon bucket setup.

 

[DTz]

Just going to add that Humblefish has updated the CP protocol if you care to read it. CP the tang for 10 days, then place him in an observation non medicated tank for another few weeks. As far as the 5 gallon bucket, if you feel comfortable with that go with it. But I highly recommend you set up a 10 to 15 gallon observation/qt tank for future use.

yes ive read that... just curious if there are any additional tips that i can get just to make the process smoother. yeah will b putting the fish in a bigger tank for observation. main purpose of using 5 gallon bucket is for easier water change.

 

[DTz]

additional question on prime. lets say ammonia creeps out every 24 hours. can i just dose prime every 24 hours and it'll bind ammonia safe and i do not need to do water change as often? mebbe every 3 days?

 

[14 foot reef]

Wouldn't paying for the Achillies 100% in full and leaving it in a well maintained reef system such as the retail store you bought it from where most likely they are running medication a way less stressful environment? The Achillies tang is a very fragile fish, I collected hundreds if not thousands of them when I owned a collecting station in Hawaii. The amount of stress this fish has already gone through to get from the reef, to the boat, to the collection facility in Hawaii, to the wholesaler in LA, to the local retail store, is monumental. it's amazing the fish has made it this far. The survival rate of an Achillies from Reef to Home aquarium is less than 10%, please rethink this 5 gallon bucket idea, and if the retail store you bought it from won't do this, you may want to consider a different store. This is my opinion only, don't shoot the messenger.

 

[DTz]

curious if any of u guys tried CP+TTM at the same time. ?

 

[steveb]

While I wouldn't want to QT it in a 5g bucket leaving it in the retailers tanks doesn't seem to be good idea either given that they have fish going in/out all the time with who knows what and they may or may not have copper etc. at therapeutic levels.

 

[14 foot reef]

While I wouldn't want to QT it in a 5g bucket leaving it in the retailers tanks doesn't seem to be good idea either given that they have fish going in/out all the time with who knows what and they may or may not have copper etc. at therapeutic levels.

Agree with you, but this is a way better option. The 5 gallon bucket is a death sentence for this fish.

 

[DTz]

Agree with you, but this is a way better option. The 5 gallon bucket is a death sentence for this fish.

not sure if its as bad as u put it . it might not b the most ideal. but for 10 days of QT and with daily water change. im actually quite confident it'll make it. like i said it was in a space less than 5 gallons with another small fish for 2 weeks and it was eating like a pig when i saw it. its colour excellent too ... with blue black and vibrant orange

 

[DTz]

 

[Marlon C]

5 gallon bucket for a fish used to roaming the reefs. Or any fish in a bucket for more than 2 days isnt a good idea. Sorry but rethink your vessel. Go buy some cheap storage boxes. Lows or Costco the huge black ones are like 11 dollars.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

I feel if one is going to attempt expert level fish then one ought to provide expert level care

 

[Tamberav]

LFS here has fish in similar enclosers but keep in mind that LFS tank is plumbed into other tanks and filtation or such. It's 5 gallons of space but much much larger than 5 gallons of water. The water is stable and probably decently oxygenated and the system is cycled so there isn't ammonia to worry about.

A 5 gallon bucket would need frequent water changes which is stressful in itself as it's not like the LFS drains the water from that 5g box. Not to mention this particular fish has a high oxygen demand.

To make the 5g bucket similar to that LFS tank it would need to be plumbed into say 100+ gallons of water and such if you get what I am saying.