honest opions about achillies in 180 gallon

[corpusse]

Full disclosure I already own the achillies.

He was first pre qt in my frag tank, got eating well treated for flukes with prazipro twice then moved to a true 55g qt, observed for a week, treated with cupramine for just over 4 weeks which I am starting to phase out.

I have a 5 foot 112 gallon, 1 chevron tang, one clown, a few wrasses and 2 cardinals. I was planning on buying a 180 gallon as early as this weekend. I just need a new return pump (and eventually more lighting) have extra live rock in a barrel ect.

180 is the biggest tank size I can do. I am planning on moving within 1 year. I actually want to move my display tank off the carpet so it can be replaced and into an unfinished area of my basement. I saw a 5x3 tank for sale locally so I posted on RC to see if people thought the Achillies would be okay in this tank size vs 6x2 footprint. Well apparently 6x2 is no longer good for this fish.

While I certainly don't feel like I was bullied, I do feel I am being guilted into a 180 not being big enough. While the fish isn't going to die in a 180 I don't want to look at the fish I wanted for so many years always feeling bad he's in too small of a tank. I actually bought the fish first so I would have to buy this 180 when I move my tank vs draining it into a million buckets and rushing to set it up again.

Thoughts?

[shrimp]

I had mine in a 45" long 27" high and 28" deep for over 5 years before I sold the entire set up. As long as you do not have too many fish a 180G would be more than big enough.

[Delphinus]

How big is the fish now?

Here's my take... Unless he's huge and/or you have many other large fish in there, I don't see why it can't work out for now. Yeah, maybe in a year or two things might be different ... but then ... maybe things will be different in a year or two (ie. maybe you can do a bigger tank down the road, or you look at rehoming him if it really comes to that).

My understanding with this fish is that they tend to inhabit the surf zone, so, big flow is probably a benefit for the tank. (FWIW/IMO/etc.)

[fishoholic]

How big is the fish now?

Here's my take... Unless he's huge and/or you have many other large fish in there, I don't see why it can't work out for now. Yeah, maybe in a year or two things might be different ... but then ... maybe things will be different in a year or two (ie. maybe you can do a bigger tank down the road, or you look at rehoming him if it really comes to that).

My understanding with this fish is that they tend to inhabit the surf zone, so, big flow is probably a benefit for the tank. (FWIW/IMO/etc.)

Totally agree

[Magickiwi]

The thing you need to know about RC is that there is a large population of trolls living there. The internet makes it less important to filter what they are thinking before it leaves their brain so you get a lot of d**khead replies from people. Some people there confuse post-count with knowledge and influence. People are generally more reasonable and rational in their replies here and I think there is just as much knowledge and wisdom to be found here.

Liveaquaria recommends a minimum of 180 gallons (http://http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+43+325&pcatid=325). Going to a 220 would give the fish an extra 40g of water to swim in, which works out to a whopping 2cuf extra to swim in. For a fish that would swim miles a day in the wild I'm sure it wouldn't benefit greatly from that little extra space.

[corpusse]

He's about 3.5" now teardrop is still just a dot. I mentioned what fish I have above. Chevron tang is the only large fish. Had him since 2007/2008.

I am well aware of the surge. I think the new tank will probably have to go more in an SPS direction as LPS which I normally keep won't do as well in the flow. I use WP 40's which I was very skeptical of, but even excluding the price factor I think they provide better flow then vorechs.

3 WP 40's will provide over 12000gph plus I have some tunze powerheads as well. The WPs will be on wave function. I use one in the QT tank the achilles is currently in and one side of the tank always has salt creep because the powerhead is blowing water right out of the tank. I had to go with the shorter waves and slightly lower the water level to keep most of it in.

I did do a lot of research before buying the fish. While I had heard some people say they need 8 feet. MOST places suggest 180. I know minimum is minimum but that's what I thought. It would be good enough if the tank is planned around him. I knew I wanted to move my current DT off the carpet so getting a 180 now would be easy. I have extra rock in a barrel ready to go ect. My skimmer can handle the load and so forth. Now I've got guys suggested I take out the windows in my basement to get an 8 foot tank down there since one won't fit down the stairs despite the fact I have an impending move. If I was going to be that crazy I'd just buy him a plane ticket and send him along with a donation to the Waikiki Aquarium since he can never go back to the wild.

I guess I can still get the 180, see what happens since I will be tearing it down once again anyway, getting him out wont be an issue. Given the amount of losses people have with this fish I'm actually surprised he is doing so well.

[marie]

IMO there is no tank big enough for an Achilles tang, having said that with a huge amount of flow the 180g will be big enough for him. After 7 years of mine living in a 175g bow front I finally got him his own 8 ft tank, unfortunately he died before he got to see it :sad:

[monza]

IMO there is no tank big enough for an Achilles tang, having said that with a huge amount of flow the 180g will be big enough for him. After 7 years of mine living in a 175g bow front I finally got him his own 8 ft tank, unfortunately he died before he got to see it :sad:

Curious, why is no tank big enough?

[marie]

Curious, why is no tank big enough?

They really, really love to swim. This video was taken not long after I got him. By the time he died he was easily 3 times bigger and 10 times faster, a regular bull in a china shop.
I'm not saying nobody should have one, he was the best fish I have ever had and would get another if they weren't so darned expensive..... I paid $59 for Doofus :lol:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/mariesnell/th_2006_1213achvid0007.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/mariesnell/2006_1213achvid0007.mp4)