Achilles Tang - Tips on getting them to eat?

Reefer40b · Feb 5, 2019

Anyone have success with getting a really picky Achilles to eat? Mine is 5-6in and fresh off the boat.

I have tried Nori clipped all day, massstick, my homemade fish food which my new Flame wrasses love.

Any ideas I could try? Thinking about putting nori on a rock to make it more natural... maybe hes afraid of the clip..

4FordFamily · Feb 5, 2019

Reefer40b said:
Anyone have success with getting a really picky Achilles to eat? Mine is 5-6in and fresh off the boat.

I have tried Nori clipped all day, massstick, my homemade fish food which my new Flame wrasses love.

Any ideas I could try? Thinking about putting nori on a rock to make it more natural... maybe hes afraid of the clip..

How long has it gone without eating?

They can be tricky. I find that live brine is the secret sauce to get them eating. From there, it's easy to transition to frozen brine, then other frozen foods, etc.

Red nori and live blackworms would be #2 and #3 for these guys.

ca1ore · Feb 5, 2019

Agree on brine - either frozen or live. All of my achilles over the years would eat only brine initially. Also helps a lot to have a lot of flow in the tank. Often the AT will chase and eat something it would ignore if still.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 5, 2019

Brine is a sure bet as is smaller Mysis.
What is salinity as they can be sensitive to salt content and tank temperature. Being new, I would not be alarmed yet- is it at least grazing and/or picking at rocks? If so, that shows an interest in a future meal. If not, How is breathing, eyes, etc which may point to flukes or similar in gills preventing it from ability to want to eat.

Reefer40b · Feb 5, 2019

4FordFamily said:
How long has it gone without eating?

They can be tricky. I find that live brine is the secret sauce to get them eating. From there, it's easy to transition to frozen brine, then other frozen foods, etc.

Red nori and live blackworms would be #2 and #3 for these guys.

Its only been 5 days but how pricy he was it just makes me worried, and was just wondering if there was anything else I might could be doing.
I do have some Red nori, I will test out that with some green on a rock.

ca1ore said:
Agree on brine - either frozen or live. All of my achilles over the years would eat only brine initially. Also helps a lot to have a lot of flow in the tank. Often the AT will chase and eat something it would ignore if still.

It has decent flow in the tank, its my LPS tank 50 gal lowboy and he has it all to himself. I didn't want to stress him with other fish.

vetteguy53081 said:
Brine is a sure bet as is smaller Mysis.
What is salinity as they can be sensitive to salt content and tank temperature. Being new, I would not be alarmed yet- is it at least grazing and/or picking at rocks? If so, that shows an interest in a future meal. If not, How is breathing, eyes, etc which may point to flukes or similar in gills preventing it from ability to want to eat.

eyes are clear, great color, not skinny, tank is at 77-78 1.026 Milwaukee digital. breathing seems normal, no flashing at all.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 5, 2019

Reefer40b said:
Its only been 5 days but how pricy he was it just makes me worried, and was just wondering if there was anything else I might could be doing.
I do have some Red nori, I will test out that with some green on a rock.

It has decent flow in the tank, its my LPS tank 50 gal lowboy and he has it all to himself. I didn't want to stress him with other fish.

eyes are clear, great color, not skinny, tank is at 77-78 1.026 Milwaukee digital. breathing seems normal, no flashing at all.

Give it time. Its an adult, and likely discovering its' new environment. I assume no aggressors intimidating it ? Seachem has a product called " ENTICE" which increases appetite but will be a gamble. You can try a little garlic extract to its food also

ajhudson15 · Feb 5, 2019

I had good luck with going to the store and buying a clove of garlic and soaking some food in it when I ahd trouble with an angelfish once.

Reefer40b · Feb 5, 2019

vetteguy53081 said:
Give it time. Its an adult, and likely discovering its' new environment. I assume no aggressors intimidating it ? Seachem has a product called " ENTICE" which increases appetite but will be a gamble. You can try a little garlic extract to its food also

yea he has no competition, just himself. Thanks for the help!

4FordFamily · Feb 5, 2019

Reefer40b said:
Its only been 5 days but how pricy he was it just makes me worried, and was just wondering if there was anything else I might could be doing.
I do have some Red nori, I will test out that with some green on a rock.

It has decent flow in the tank, its my LPS tank 50 gal lowboy and he has it all to himself. I didn't want to stress him with other fish.

eyes are clear, great color, not skinny, tank is at 77-78 1.026 Milwaukee digital. breathing seems normal, no flashing at all.

I would source live brine ASAP. Each day it doesn't eat makes it that much less likely it will take food. I would buy live blackworms and live brine as an "insurance policy" of sorts.

AquaLifeStudio · Feb 5, 2019

It took my Achilles about 6 days to find its appetite again after adding it to my QT. It was either the green or purple nori that it started to nibble at.

I was just like you, I was very worried for that first week while it wasn't eating but the fish eventually came around. I had to go through all available measures, the ones mentioned in this thread above me.

As it now dwells in its large tank, it grazes on all the rocks and continues to devour the purple nori off one of the three clips that are in that tank.

As it was expected, due to what they are used to in the ocean, it absolutely loves the high flow being put out by one of my MP40 pumps. It treats it likes it's a treadmill.

I've had mine for about 2 1/2 months now and all seems well.

Reefer40b · Feb 6, 2019

On todays menu I going with a rock that has red algae, green algae, and massstick soaked with some selcon and garlic. will see how much is gone when i get off work later! I hope to see a clean rock...

AquaLifeStudio · Feb 7, 2019

Any update today?

Reefer40b · Feb 7, 2019

sntmods said:
Any update today?

Good news. So it looked like he ate the masstick and part of the green algae. Didn't touch the red. I fed him some of my homemade food and he chowed down so happy!