Achilles Tang 101

[R6REEFER]

Good luck sir. Hopefully you won't have any issues with its transition to your tank since its eating already. That's one hurdle out of the way.

If it does come down with ich and you need advice treating, I'd hit up the same people in this thread that suggest QT and zero-ich environments. They've already all been down that road before.

Will do for sure, I like the advice you gave. It's arduous but if that's what it takes...

 

[wowkingjames]

What store did you buy him from, I might be going to SA in the fall and would enjoy visiting a good store.

 

[4FordFamily]

Good luck with the process. If the fish is eating, it will be fine. I have been in the hobby 10 years and never once QT a fish. The tangs gets spots and then they go away. A eating fish will beat ich every time. Placing a beautiful achilles in some tiny QT tank with pvc could cause unnecessary stress, causing it to stop eating and could lead to death. Tang police say 6 to 8 feet for space for large tangs, yet QT police say QT in a tiny glass box for months with minimal filtration. I say keep it simple, place it in a large tank full of live rock, minimize stress and feed often, and it will be fine.

Great work being patient, finding a healthy speciman and good luck on this exciting journey.

What you describe works great for many fish, even tangs. Absolutely not for this one, and many other acanthurus tangs. I agree though for several fish this may work and did for me for almost a decade, although I had no fish for more than 5 years that's a half hearted success I was content at the time.

These days velvet is far more prevalent than it has been which changes things significantly. Ich is peanuts to velvet.

I don't want to be a Debbie downer but I do want other readers to know and understand that this is a species of fish that is vastly different from many others, and encourage them to read the acanthurus tang and ich management thread I posted above.

Your thread is titled "Achilles 101" which implies education and the forum browser doing their research (probably nowhere near 9 months worth) would probably come here expecting such to some degree so I want to make absolutely sure everyone knows that this is not a recommended way to treat this fish and the risks (to this fish and the others in the tank and potentially future fish additions) and aggravation pain in the rear end should you decide to fix the problem and save the fish inherent with your choice.

Spoken from what I would call the most thick skulled, stubborn, break the rules, learn everything the hard way hobbyist I was for over ten years I have a lot of experience with what I say on these fish.

And while on the topic I currently own two Achilles tangs, one powder blue, and a powder brown. I have about 15 tangs, 7 or 8 of them are acanthurus tangs. The pbt and PB fall in to the same category and requirements except that Achilles are about twice as difficult and susceptible as the rest, but the story is the same for them as well.

 

[FarmerTy]

Speaking of stubborn, it took me killing half my stock twice and killing 3-4 PBTs and one achilles before I gave in and said, I'm a believer that achilles and PBTs have no resistance. They must be ich free.

It's real hard to have kept tanks for 13+ years without ever having to QT to swallow that pill, trust me. I'm a believer now... a fish murderer too but the point finally came across to me.

 

[R6REEFER]

What store did you buy him from, I might be going to SA in the fall and would enjoy visiting a good store.

If you come to SA you MUST check out Elegant Reef, that's our best LFS but if you're buying a fish, ask Jacob to feed it. I've had bad luck with their suppliers fish. I can't play favoritism as I do business with the top 3 stores in SA so I'll just give you those in no specific order.

1. South Seas Aquatics
2. Elegant Reef
3. Salty Fish Aquariums

Tell em Trevor sent you

 

[FarmerTy]

I love that giant blonde naso in Elegant's show tank. What a stunner!

 

[R6REEFER]

What you describe works great for many fish, even tangs. Absolutely not for this one, and many other acanthurus tangs. I agree though for several fish this may work and did for me for almost a decade, although I had no fish for more than 5 years that's a half hearted success I was content at the time.

These days velvet is far more prevalent than it has been which changes things significantly. Ich is peanuts to velvet.

Don't want to be a Debbie downer but I do want other readers to know and understand that this is a species of fish that is vastly different from many others, and encourage them to read the acanthurus tang and ich management thread I posted above.

Your thread is titled "Achilles 101" which implies education and the forum browser doing their research (probably nowhere near 9 months worth) would probably come here expecting such to some degree so I want to make absolutely sure everyone knows that this is not a recommended way to treat this fish and the risks (to this fish and the others in the tank and potentially future fish additions) and aggravation inherent with your choice.

Spoken from what I would call the most thick skulled, stubborn, break the rules, learn everything the hard way hobbyist I was for over ten years I have a lot of experience with what I say on these fish.

And while on the topic I currently own two Achilles tangs, one powder blue, and a powder brown. I have about 15 tangs, 7 or 8 of them are acanthurus tangs. They pbt and PB fall in to the same category and requirements except that Achilles are about twice as susceptible as the rest, but the story is the same for them as well.

Sure, I respect your opinion and it should be accessible to research. All I can say is we'll see bro. Just because I didn't quarentine a fish that a personal friend of mine (whom I trust) already did, doesn't mean the fish is doomed. BUT, for the sake of ignorance, here you go. It's a 100% fact that the Achilles is going to die because I did not quarentine. No one should ever do as I've done with this fish.

 

[R6REEFER]

I love that giant blonde naso in Elegant's show tank. What a stunner!

I know, I pet him every time I'm browsing coral in that tank

 

[4FordFamily]

Speaking of stubborn, it took me killing half my stock twice and killing 3-4 PBTs and one achilles before I gave in and said, I'm a believer that achilles and PBTs have no resistance. They must be ich free.

It's real hard to have kept tanks for 13+ years without ever having to QT to swallow that pill, trust me. I'm a believer now... a fish murderer too but the point finally came across to me.

Oh my friend I am so embarrassed with how many I killed before I submitted to the idea, let's just say several multiples more

 

[4FordFamily]

Sure, I respect your opinion and it should be accessible to research. All I can say is we'll see bro. Just because I didn't quarentine a fish that a personal friend of mine (whom I trust) already did, doesn't mean the fish is doomed. BUT, for the sake of ignorance, here you go. It's a 100% fact that the Achilles is going to die because I did not quarentine. No one should ever do as I've done with this fish.

LFS QT and treatment are vastly different from what is necessary to be effective. It isn't 100% but the odds of it working out would be statistically nearing zero long term (and in this case long term is more than one year, which is really a low bar they should live a decade or more).

That's notwithstanding the introduction of other non qt'd fish later. If you were somehow able to succeed, eventually an untreated fish will introduce ich or worse, and it will be completely unable to cope for the reasons mentioned in the acanthus tang and ich thread.

I do wish you the best of luck, for you and the tang's sake.

 

[FarmerTy]

Oh my friend I am so embarrassed with how many I killed before I submitted to the idea, let's just say several multiples

Oh I'm sure... It was your statements that I wouldn't submit to. Lol. You live and you learn. Some lessons just have to be learned personally first before they really sink in. [emoji4]

 

[R6REEFER]

That's one thing that infuriates me. If you try to keep a fish once and it dies, sure try again. But after you've lost two of the same species notorious for dying in captivity, you need to give it a rest and suck it up. I read someone said they killed 12 Achilles, shame on you. It's not about the money or your ego, it's the fact that you're too stubborn to accept the fact that you shouldn't try to keep that species for whatever reason it may be.

I'm not sure about you guys but the very reason I got into this hobby is my sheer passion and love for marine life and the opportunity to replicate a piece of that ecosystem in my home. The last thing I would ever want is to lose a living creature, much less deliberately continue to kill that same species over and over because I can't set my pride aside. The avarice of man is a shameful thing.

 

[R6REEFER]

Hopefully we got all of that out of the way now.

How many times a day do you all feed your Achilles? So far I do pellets and algae sheet in the morning, then pellets and frozen in the evening.

 

[FarmerTy]

Hopefully we got all of that out of the way now.

How many times a day do you all feed your Achilles? So far I do pellets and algae sheet in the morning, then pellets and frozen in the evening.

No different then any of my other tangs really if they were kept separately. Auto feeder drops pellets 4 times a day and I feed frozen and nori at night.

I do observe that they appreciate more nori then most of my other tangs.

 

[R6REEFER]

LFS QT and treatment are vastly different from what is necessary to be effective. It isn't 100% but the odds of it working out would be statistically nearing zero long term (and in this case long term is more than one year, which is really a low bar they should live a decade or more).

That's notwithstanding the introduction of other non qt'd fish later. If you were somehow able to succeed, eventually an untreated fish will introduce ich or worse, and it will be completely unable to cope for the reasons mentioned in the acanthus tang and ich thread.

I do wish you the best of luck, for you and the tang's sake.

There will not be anymore fish going in the tank. That's his tank.

 

[4FordFamily]

Hopefully we got all of that out of the way now.

How many times a day do you all feed your Achilles? So far I do pellets and algae sheet in the morning, then pellets and frozen in the evening.

It was me that killed 12 Achilles over ten years. Yup, it was foolish and embarrassing. Each time I thought was "different". I blamed it on something new every time, weak specimen, not enough flow, not enough skimming, some parameter wasn't perfect, non ideal tankmates, wrong size, wrong vendor, wrong type of food, it was always something.

The common denominator was the fish dying as I describe no matter how flawless and healthy everyone else in the tank was. I couldn't believe that suddenly PBT and Achilles can't live the same way as the dozens of other species I had and had kept. I have kept 3-4 tanks for 12 years, none under 54 gallons, typically all over 75.

When I tell you I was a hard head and probably a bleep I wasn't kidding. So the failing at this is lots and lots of unwarranted and unnecessary experience of me being sure this time was different and I was special because X

Achilles tangs love red nori, mixed frozen foods soaked in selcon, keep it varied. Mine love anything I add.

In the past if I've struggled to get them to eat live brine, live blackworms, and red nori. One or more of them always worked. I could always fatten them up initially until ich took hold slowly.

 

[carolinareefguy]

No one is being negative but at this point im not sure what you are looking for? The biggest issues with achilles are space (which you dont want to hear about), quarantine and ich (which seems like you also don't want to hear about), and getting it to eat (which its doing). Other than that it's just a fish at the end of the day, make sure it eats and doesn't die.

The only other tip I can suggest is once the achilles gets settled and establishes dominance, prepare for it to be very aggressive to fish you add in going forward.

This is my exact point... the first thing u list is space. How big are the tanks you guys are using in qt process? You are telling me i need a 6 foot tank for qt. What if I use a smaller tank and it spaz out and dies due to limited swimming space. How many folks have killed these beautiful specimans cramming them in a small tank full of pvc and chemicals.

A very small percentage of hobbyists have a 6 foot tank and adequate filtration to QT a tang. We are talking hundreds of dollars just for a tank plus hundred more for powerheads filtration etc. Plus the space, water changes. I understand the process and the theories but it is not very practical.

 

[Ariel perez]

fish is not woth the price and all the hasel u going to be involve people please leave this fish in the ocean its not a reliable fish people don understand that why is so dificult my god there are other nice tangs aout there understand i have lost 5 already and try everything u only hear some o e of the kind stories out there understand

 

[Justin D]

I had a Achilles that was 7.5 inch in a 350 gallon aquarium with 140 sump I loved that fish but every other month he was sick then I had the treat with Cupramine all the time he was getting all my other fish sick so I found a guy with a 800 reef the Achilles is the only tang in there so it's working out

 

[Justin D]

Good medications are metroplex and kanaplex by seachem