Any Experience With Achilles?

[seanoman]

I purchased an Achilles about a month ago from Aquatics Addictions. I have always wanted this tang. So when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. It is about 3", so it is still rather small. When I bought it, it was the second day it was in the store and was already eating nori. I took it home, and it acclimated very well to our tank, which is a 225 gallon tank. It did great for the first week, it had beautiful colouring and didn't even get ich. After the first week, our regal tang which was about 6", so quite a bit bigger, started to pick on it. The achilles did get a little bit of ich, but mainly had these white blotches all over its body. I finally got the regal tang out last week, because I had enough of it picking on the achilles. Since I have taken it out, the white blotches have mostly gone away, but it is still a very pale colour. It eats nori all day long, but has still yet to eat mysis, flake, raw clams or anything else. All be it, it does graze off of the live rock. I was wondering if there are fellow reefers out there who are successfully keeping this species and if they have experienced the same thing or not. I know of Untamed and Marie who have them, so are there any special secrets to these fish to get there colour back????

[Trigger Man]

I have one in QT with no problems right now a little over 5" long and has been eating from day 1. It eats nori, all types of pellets and some mysis (I found mysis was a pain in the beginning) and even now the Achilles just nibbles bits and pieces. I talked to Marie about keeping one and she was very helpful. Right now I've been feeding it 5 times daily and it is getting nice and fat, so now it just a matter of deciding when to put it in the main display tank, and hope everyone gets along. (I did use NSF ick medication as a preventative from the beginning).
I would like to hear more from others who have had this fish.

[seanoman]

Yeah it gets all excited when the mysis goes in the tank, but has yet to grab one and eat it. My dussumieri tang, wouldn't touch mysis either for about a month or so. He was strictly eating nori. He only started to go after the mysis, when I put the achilles in.

[EmilyB]

Well, they are herbivores...

Spirulina flake and they do like those OSI spirulina nibblers very much.

[seanoman]

No i know they are herbivores, but I was just curious if maybe it was something in it's diet that was taking away its colour. It has no problem eating any algea of any type and it is getting a belly on it.

[marie]

Usually loss of colour is a sign of stress, my achilles looked like a powder brown hybrid (greyish) the whole time he was in quarantine but the day after he went into the display tank his colour came back. He may still be expecting the regal to jump out of the rocks at him and may take a while to feel comfortable in his new surroundings.

Do you have any other fish in the tank that is bigger then him that he might feel a bit threatened by?

[wickedfrags]

Congrats on finding one that size! I am looking for one, likely the last tang to go in my tank. And from previous experience, if it is eating, it will be be fine. A little ick is to be expected.

[Trigger Man]

Congrats on finding one that size! I am looking for one, likely the last tang to go in my tank. And from previous experience, if it is eating, it will be be fine. A little ick is to be expected.

Good to know that if it is eating it should be fine. Now I just have to decide how long is enough in qt when it is showing great coloring, eating and no signs of disease. Is 2 weeks enough?

[seanoman]

Usually loss of colour is a sign of stress, my achilles looked like a powder brown hybrid (greyish) the whole time he was in quarantine but the day after he went into the display tank his colour came back. He may still be expecting the regal to jump out of the rocks at him and may take a while to feel comfortable in his new surroundings.

Do you have any other fish in the tank that is bigger then him that he might feel a bit threatened by?

Hey thanks for the replies. Marie the way you described it looking like a powder brown hybrid (greyish) would be exactly what I would say it looks like. It seems however that when we go down to look at him, he slowly gets better colouring. Which makes me think something else is picking on him, But I have never seen anything other than the regal show any aggression.

The other fish in the tank are:

6 - Green Chromis
2 - Red Fire Fish
1 - Yellow Fin Fairy Wrasse
1 - Green Coris Wrasse
1 - Raccoon Butterfly
1 - Sunburst Anthias
1 - Dussumieri Tang

Congrats on finding one that size! I am looking for one, likely the last tang to go in my tank. And from previous experience, if it is eating, it will be be fine. A little ick is to be expected.


It's not the ick I am concerned about, its the pale colour.

Like I said, I got the fish from Dan at Aquatic Addictions in Abby here. He has gotten 3 in lately and they have all been the same size. I know he ships, you should give him a call.

[300g]

i have one show size 10" in my 280g fish tank.eat all the food ,i keep him only 2 weeks ???(dead)

[marie]

Hey thanks for the replies. Marie the way you described it looking like a powder brown hybrid (greyish) would be exactly what I would say it looks like. It seems however that when we go down to look at him, he slowly gets better colouring. Which makes me think something else is picking on him, But I have never seen anything other than the regal show any aggression.

The other fish in the tank are:

6 - Green Chromis
2 - Red Fire Fish
1 - Yellow Fin Fairy Wrasse
1 - Green Coris Wrasse
1 - Raccoon Butterfly
1 - Sunburst Anthias
1 - Dussumieri Tang




It's not the ick I am concerned about, its the pale colour.

Like I said, I got the fish from Dan at Aquatic Addictions in Abby here. He has gotten 3 in lately and they have all been the same size. I know he ships, you should give him a call.

Of all the fish on your list, the one most likely to be picking on him is the Dussumieri

[Delphinus]

Never kept this fish myself but the one thing that does come to mind - flow flow and more flow. I've seen this fish while snorkeling and it's plum happy in the raging surf at depths less than 10' and from what I've heard from those that seem to successfully keep this fish that the common element seems to be high O2 and high flow turnover and surging currents in the tank. In fact I have this recollection of Marie posting a picture (or maybe a video) of her Achilles tang doing a sort of "surfing" trick in the output of a Tunze ... (at least I think it was Marie.. apologies if I'm remembering wrong..)

So I'm thinking that even if the fish is in QT, it might not hurt to have a higher flow turnover in the QT tank than what you might do otherwise.

Just my $0.02, not based on experience at all, just based on my own speculation. Good luck, they are a beautiful fish, I hope one day when I'm ready, I can try this fish too.

[300g]

any pics of Dussumieri Tang ???

[marie]

It was me and it was a video. He looks so small and cute in that video.
I really need to get him a bigger tank he's showing signs that the 175g is becoming (is) too small :sad:
This was taken almost exactly 2 years ago

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/mariesnell/th_2006_1213achvid0007.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v224/mariesnell/?action=view&current=2006_1213achvid0007.flv)

[Lance]

He ain't small & cute anymore. He's big, fat & handsome.

[Lance]

Hey Marie, if your 175 is getting too small, maybe he should go in my 225 until you get the 300.:mrgreen:

[seanoman]

Never kept this fish myself but the one thing that does come to mind - flow flow and more flow. I've seen this fish while snorkeling and it's plum happy in the raging surf at depths less than 10' and from what I've heard from those that seem to successfully keep this fish that the common element seems to be high O2 and high flow turnover and surging currents in the tank. In fact I have this recollection of Marie posting a picture (or maybe a video) of her Achilles tang doing a sort of "surfing" trick in the output of a Tunze ... (at least I think it was Marie.. apologies if I'm remembering wrong..)

So I'm thinking that even if the fish is in QT, it might not hurt to have a higher flow turnover in the QT tank than what you might do otherwise.

Just my $0.02, not based on experience at all, just based on my own speculation. Good luck, they are a beautiful fish, I hope one day when I'm ready, I can try this fish too.

Fow flow, we have two tunze 6200 on wavy seas and a dart for a return. The tunzes put out about 5800gph each and the dart about 2000gph. I thought that this was lots of flow for our tank which is 6'x30"x24". Correct me if I am wrong, but would that not be enough??

And yes the achilles loves swimming in the flow. It swims laps around the tank in and out of the rock work, stopping each time for a nibble of nori.

Of all the fish on your list, the one most likely to be picking on him is the Dussumieri

I was just down there for about 15 minutes watching there behaviour. When I first got down there, the achilles was quite grey. The longer I stayed, the better his colour appeared. However, it would sometimes go grey again.

With the Dussumieri, it is so scittish, I would highly doubt that it is doing anything to harrass the achilles. It definetly is possible considering they are both tangs and the dussumieri is a lot bigger, but knowing his personality I don't think so. To put it in perspective, when we recently added a 1.5" Sunburst anthias, the close to 7" Dussumieri tang was scared of it.

[wickedfrags]

The toughest thing about these fish is getting them to eat. If they eat, eventually they will kick the ick that inevidably comes with them.

Assuming he keeps eating you should have no worries. If he is in QT, get him good and fat as it could be stressful him when there become competition for food.

Get him good and fat, so if he does not get to eat too much for the first few days his fat reserves do not go down to low.

Good to know that if it is eating it should be fine. Now I just have to decide how long is enough in qt when it is showing great coloring, eating and no signs of disease. Is 2 weeks enough?

[naesco]

I have tried the achilles tang on two occasions many years ago. In both cases the tangs died.
I read subsequently that the are a very very difficult tang to keep as others have posted. I think it is on the way out as the symptoms you described were the same as mine.
Although they are algae eaters I would add to there diet varied high quality foods including garlic and selcon supplements.
I do know that the require highly oxygenated water so I would suggest you install a wave system or at the minimum place a hefty powerhead six inches below the water line. You will see that the achillies will 'play' in the stream.
Best of success. I hope everything works out.
http://wetwebmedia.com/badacanthurusaq.htm has excellent recommendations on the good and bad tangs to keep. The achlilles tang is on the bad list.

Apart from the well know tank size requirements (which you easily meet), reefers are well advised to consult this list before considering a tang purchase.

[seanoman]

Just a quick little update, the achilles seems to be doing better today. When I got home from work, I went straight down stairs to the tank. When I got around the corner I noticed him right away, because he was black again. YAY. Now he does still have a little bit of ick, but he is still eating a ton and has a big gut on him. Here's a couple pics I just took.

Here he is picking algea off the bottom of the tank.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FishTank221.jpg

Here he is with his new little buddy, our new Sargassum Trigger.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/seanoman44/FishTank240.jpg

About the trigger, I just picked him up from Aquatics Addictions on Wednesday. I am thinking that maybe he is somehow making the achilles feel more comfortable now that he is the new guy in the tank. I don't really know, I am just happy that they are both eating and the achilles seems to be on the right track again.

[Drock169]

Try feeding your achilles some gracillaria if you want to try to fatten him up

[StirCrazy]

when you go look at him and he is grey could he just have woken up? I had mine for almost 3 years before I sold him when I took down the tank, when he slept he went molted, and soon after waking up he was full color. he didn't know I could see his hiding spot :mrgreen: Could be a defense/cammo to help him hide when he sleeps.

Steve