The Little Tang That Could

[BamaMedic]

My fiancé is friends with the local Petco fish manager who sends her stuff about sick saltwater fish all the time. That’s how we ended up with the little tang that could. She was stuck to the drain intake and couldn’t swim upright without “falling over” to one side. We agreed to take her for little to nothing and see what we could do.

We’re on day 4 at the moment. She’s getting Focus + Metro + Kanaplex in her food (which she eats like a pig), we’re using copper power which will be up to therapeutic levels tomorrow. She’s also getting Furan-2 in the tank water. Lots of gas exchange and no light (besides ambient). This morning she was swimming around just fine when she actually swam. Otherwise she does weird tang stuff like laying on the bottom or sliding herself under the pvc pipe. She has little sores or somewhat white marks on her, but it doesn’t really look like ich. It almost looks like velvet, but the pet store had her for 2 weeks before we got her and they said she’s been this way since she arrived. She also doesn’t favor being near the powerheads nor is she breathing hard. Other than the terrible color, weird looking “wounds?” and possibly lethargy, unless it’s her just being a tang, she has greatly improved in the last 4 days. Any ideas?

Also I’m sorry about the pics it’s hard to get good ones as she’s always hiding.

 

[Dsnakes]

Good work setting it up with the best hopes. Check out this thread about another little tang.

Petco rescue, two tangs

I stopped by petco and couldn't let these two fish die without a fighting chance, from all the reading I've done on here it looks to me like they have advanced HLLE. My question is; should I treat for possible bacterial infections or just use vitamins, nutritious foods, and frequent water...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

be sure to give it nori laced with garlic, and add vitamins to its food.

 

[BamaMedic]

be sure to give it nori laced with garlic, and add vitamins to its food.

Thanks for the advice, if I’m being honest we’re absolutely new to tangs. We’ve been feeding mysis, as we were just trying to get a feel for her appetite, which is steadily increasing since we admitted her to her Hospital De La Medic. I’ll pick up some Nori tomorrow. Should I mix the Nori and Mysis with the meds or just Nori? And what vitamins do you recommend?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the advice, if I’m being honest we’re absolutely new to tangs. We’ve been feeding mysis, as we were just trying to get a feel for her appetite, which is steadily increasing since we admitted her to her Hospital De La Medic. I’ll pick up some Nori tomorrow. Should I mix the Nori and Mysis with the meds or just Nori? And what vitamins do you recommend?

Vitamins- either selcon or VitaChem. Plankton, or LRS foods would be good and are bite sized for this fish and others. Add vitamins and even garlic to the frozen. A drop or two is plenty

 

[BamaMedic]

Vitamins- either selcon or VitaChem. Plankton, or LRS foods would be good and are bite sized for this fish and others. Add vitamins and even garlic to the frozen. A drop or two is plenty

Awesome thanks for the advice. I’ve been using garlic with the abx concoctions, then mix it all with mysis. We’ll pick up some Nori to replace the mysis and vitamins tomorrow.

 

[BamaMedic]

A small update:
We went and got some Nori and VitaChem from our LFS last week. Feeding a mysis + Nori concoction mixed with abx and VitaChem twice a day. She finished marinating in Furan-2 yesterday, and there’s such a big improvement. There’s still some noticeable anomalies on her body, but her blue is very vibrant now. She tends to swim like crazy all around the tank; Until we walk in the room. Once she sees someone she darts and slides under the PVC to play dead.

We can’t run carbon to get the Furan-2 completely out of the water while she’s still on the copper timer, so we’re just going to do weekly water changes without dosing anymore to remove it.

Question: Anyone have any tricks to grinding up the Nori into smaller pieces? I cut the end of our quarantine pipette to try and suck the concoction up, but it’s still difficult. Plus her mouth is so small that it really needs to be very tiny pieces.

Thanks again for all of y’alls help.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Playing dead is normal and will get less in time

 

[BamaMedic]

Playing dead is normal and will get less in time

That’s what I’ve read. I actually think it’s adorable.

 

[eea60123]

You may be better off with just a small sheet she can graze on. You can still put the vitamins on that and let them soak in. Just watch for it breaking down and degrading your water. I’ve got a hippo that I played dead almost too well. Went on vacation with a tank sitter to feed and monitor. Got back and couldn’t find her. Moved rocks and she was laying on her side. I poked her a couple of times and went to get the net. The net freaked her out when it touched her which freaked me out. Lazarus come forth.

 

[reef lover]

+1 to leaving it whole.