Achilles Tang Success Stories

[ColaAddict]

I got one from a fellow reefer and it was eating already, so no problem there. So the secret is to try to get one from another reefer
I had it fat and eating for a few months, then all of a sudden it had an ich outbreak and died. They are so ich prone, only tang I lost in the whole tank.

 

[hermesfansf]

This particular tang is a total beauty but super sensitive at the same time. It's ICH comes and goes.....tough fish to keep indeed.

 

[faciosity]

I have wanted an achilles for years now, but waited until I think I am ready. I have 5 different tangs in my 210 that get along great and have maintained good health, so I might be almost there. I here that the trick to avoiding the ich is having a good UV sterilizer.

 

[jaesong]

Very cool, thanks for sharing the recipe!

Unable to edit my post... If this isn't allowed, please remove it.

DIY Food - With Pictures (Don't open right before eating)

I just didn't feel like reposting all the pics and everything. I have slightly changed up the recipe, but the base is still the same. I no longer add flake food or the black algae stuff. I also make it in larger batches.

 

[seafansar]

I guess we lucked out with ours and have never had a problem. We made sure it was eating at the store (ate pellets really well) and looked overall healthy. It was actually hard to get it to start eating frozen! lol. All he wanted were pellets. But now he'll eat anything. We made the mistake and put him in my dad's 125gallon when we took down our 150gallon. We set up our new 75gallon and sort of wanted him back, but I guess he's now my dad's "favorite" fish and there's no way he'd give him back . So I made my dad buy us a little chevron tang as replacement! It's better anyway, the achilles is was too big for a 75gallon now anyway. He is the ruler of my dad's tank though. Gets along great with everyone including our old orange shoulder tang who's about 2-3" bigger than the achilles, but the achilles did have to show his stuff to the poor new scopas tang the first few days. Funny thing is the scopas is afraid of the achilles, but the achilles is the only one with marks on it from the fight! Go figure. The marks aren't too bad, just missing some of his orange on his tail, but it's healing quickly.

So my advice find one that looks healthy and is already eating (ask to see it eat!). Once settled, feed a good varied diet. My dad feeds a mixture of mysis, brine, bloodworms, rod's reef, garlic, and I think a coral food too (not that the fish eat that). Be careful about adding more tangs after the achilles, because they can be aggressive (but not as bad as my powder blue I just sold who even went after our new mandarin! I mean, come on, aggressive toward a little mandarin, give me a break!).

Old pic. He's much bigger now with a huge orange spot on his tail.

He used to be sooo little!

Our replacement and that evil powder blue! Got along with the chevron and our CBB fine (they were all added at the same time), but went crazy over the new anthias and mandarin.

 

[Steelerfan747]

I love Achilles tangs, they are one of my favorites. Maybe one day I will take the plunge

 

[Irod72002]

I have wanted an achilles for years now, but waited until I think I am ready. I have 5 different tangs in my 210 that get along great and have maintained good health, so I might be almost there. I here that the trick to avoiding the ich is having a good UV sterilizer.

You take a chance of the other tangs attacking your achilles, if they are acanthurous (is that spelled right?). Some tangs are jerks and don't care what kind of tang you are.

 

[Irod72002]

Here he is yesterday, nice and fat. Eats Nori and PE Mysis with Garlic extreme. Selcon seemed to make my tank coudy, not sure why. Still not interested in NLS pellets or flakes. Red sea weed he didn't really care for. He ate calurpra in QT, but I don't add it to my DT.

Here he is in QT

Sorry, Stupid Iphone, even if the picture shows up correct on my phone. Its upside down when I upload. If you know how to flip, let me know.

The day I got him from my LFS. Salinity in bag was 1.018. Tank is at 1.024. That either means a slow drip acclimate 1-2hrs or set up your QT at 1.018 and throw him straight in, just temp float the bag.

 

[Irod72002]

At midnight I got up to check on my new baby. Found yellow tang attacking my Achilles, with 3 stab wounds! AWWWWHHH HEEELLLLL NAWWWW (ghetto voice).
I was able to catch my Yellow tang that night while I'm sure stressing out my Achilles. Yellow went into the sump.

Next day he and my foxface where best friends.
Fast forward a few days, he started getting ICH. ****! Eating okay.

Started messaging "bobkill". He recommended QT with TT. So in he went into 20gal QT.

Followed Bobkill's instructions per post on TT.
"day 1 - we rubber band nori all over the pvc and start to feed, we feed everything we have - NLS pelletrs, flakes, mysis , mega marine, brine, etc what ever we need to do to get the fish eating well
day 2/3 repeat - we trash the water with food prn, if the fish starts eating well we scale it back and feed about every 2 hours from 6am to midnight
day 4 trasnfer in the am per tt sticky
day 5/6 repeat feedings
day 7 transfer add prazipro per ins
day 8 /9 repeat feedings
day 10 transfer add prazipro per ins
day 11/12 repeat feedings
day 13 transfer to new home and done"

Set up wifi camera, purchased $120+ in different foods. PE Mysis, Rogers, Rods, Veggie Delight, Calurpra, red live sea weed, sea letus, flakes, etc.

around second TT he was ich free again.

What is TT (tank transfer), you set up a clean tank, hob filter, heater (dependable one), and air stone (for amquel), some PVC. Leave in for stated amount of time (2-3days), then set up a NEW clean tank, hob filter, heater, air stone, pvc. Make sure salinity matches perfectly and temp. Grab him with your hand and toss into new QT tank. Transfering as little water as possible. If you know the Cycle of Ich, you know this will work to rid it, if not, research ich life cycles. Do this 4 times and you should be set to go.

Why not cupramine?
Cupramine is like radiation to a fish, it kills ich, but also reduces the immunity of the fish. Achilles have a thin slime coat and therefore get ich quick. You don't want to mess with the slime coat. Will cupramine work? Yes. Are there other options? Yes, TT. More expensive, more time, more commitment, but it's worth it.


When you QT, ammonia will build, it is extemely deadly for this fish. Use amquel or some other nutrifing bacteria to eliminate ammonia.

[video=youtube_share;FQf9zpPfU4w]http://youtu.be/FQf9zpPfU4w[/video]

 

[jen2828]

Here's my "king of the tank"...had him over two years now and he's a little over 7" (about 4" thick)

 

[ethridge78]

Thats a beautiful tang

 

[Reefpharmer]

I have my Achilles in a 180 with several other tangs including a pbt. Fish were all qtd for Ich using hypo salinity. To get the tang to eat, I tried a varied diet including frozen mysis and ofcourse nori. Very important to have heavy flow to keep the tangs occupied. Sorry for the poor pic

 

[weaponsofmassdesign]

Here's my "king of the tank"...had him over two years now and he's a little over 7" (about 4" thick)

Very nice!

 

[LegitFish]

I work at a lfs, and a customer brought theirs in when they took down their system that they had for over two years. He came from a 90 gal that had five large angels and a 10" purple tang. He is in my 120gal now with a few other tangs, and is happy and eating like crazy. He is still coloring up a bit since he was a little bit beat up by his previous purple tang tank mate.

 

[reeffirstaid]

The first time I tried keeping an Achilles Tang, was a long, long time ago - in a galaxy far away. Needless to say, it was a major failure. A few years ago, I went ahead and got an Achilles Tang, in an aquarium I designed solely around it. It lived for about 6-7 years in my tank and I donated to a public aquarium. I have found strong water flow (I had 2 MP40's on the tank sides, with was 72" x 24", and one MP40 on the back) lots of greens, and making sure no other surgeonfish was present, were very important in keeping the fish healthy and active.

 

[LegitFish]

Agreed with the flow. I have 3 mp40s in my 120. He stays really active. He doesn't seem to mind any other tangs

 

[Irod72002]

Here's my "king of the tank"...had him over two years now and he's a little over 7" (about 4" thick)

Does yours eat new life spectrum? Mine hasn't and not sure if he will. Brine, nori, and rods

 

[Irod72002]

I have my Achilles in a 180 with several other tangs including a pbt. Fish were all qtd for Ich using hypo salinity. To get the tang to eat, I tried a varied diet including frozen mysis and ofcourse nori. Very important to have heavy flow to keep the tangs occupied. Sorry for the poor pic

I really want a PB to go with my Achilles, other hobbiest havnt had any luck with aggression. Worried that my Achilles will attack PB. Or vise versa

 

[Reefpharmer]

The way I did it is have the tank split into two sides w rock islands on each side of the tank. I then placed eggcrate in the middle dividing the tank into two. I made sure the eggcrate was cut to size so fish couldn't squeeze through.
One tang went to one side and the other to the other side. They both went in at the same time and ofcourse they started flashing right away. After about a week, they stopped caring and started paying attention to food more. I moved the nori clips close to the crate so they would get used to eating close to each other. After a few days of this, I removed the crate and carefully watched as they swam around each other for a few mins. After that they behave more or less well until now which is a year and some later

 

[jen2828]

Does yours eat new life spectrum? Mine hasn't and not sure if he will. Brine, nori, and rods

He does now ;-) unfortunately it took almost two years until he figured out that he loved NLS. Now he goes crazy for it...I'm still working on him eating mysis, hopefully by year 3 we'll get that down. But as you can see, he's not lacking in the weight department...LOL