Whoever stole the Achilles tang from JL today...
 

damn you!!
I came down to take a peek at it. Never seen one in person.

It was still there at 3

Wasn't me.. The last achilles broke my heart and I'm not keen to try again. At 3 years, I suppose mine did better than many others.

I saw it there yesterday as well but my 3 other tangs don't care if it costs $275. I was still tempted though.

Why would you be tempted to buy one?

Sadly, this is one of the most impossible tangs to keep and it is tough to watch them perish.

.........

what?

at least your rants used to make sense...

Thanks for the compliment, Bobytron!

Tempted to buy one because it is such an amazing looking fish.

I am also aware of the realities of keeping one, especially with 3 other tangs, and therefore, not only do I save $275, I don't feel guilty for having it die in my tank.

so why are they so hard to keep?

They are extremely susceptible to ich, hard to acclimatize and very easily stressed - a bad combination.

I seen one a while back at Ocean Aquatics and the guy said that they are like powder blues, but even harder to keep. That was enough to scare me away

PLENTY more where that came from my friend.

What fkshiu said.
In addition they apparently live in the part of the reef where the waves break and therefor need really highly oxygenated water.

so, why dont i put a huge air pump in the sump?

Some things just can't be replicated in our tanks :wink:.

I don't understand what all the hostility is about, Naesco is only trying to give a little advice if you don't like his opinion ignore it (Even if the advice is legitimate as this is a incredibly hard species to take care of).

Achilles tangs are one of the touchiest fish you can get. They don't ship well, get stressed easy and are hard to get to eat.

My tank is set up for my achilles tang. There are no other tangs in the tank with him and every new fish is treated for ich before going in the tank (whether they have ich or not). I believe my success so far is because of the measures I have taken to ensure this one fish health.....

IMO If you had a surge bucket operational in your set up and set it to a fast turnover it would be similar to the reef. An air pump would not be enough.
The problem is that this set up would likely adversely affect your coral and other fish who would feel as though they are in a washing machine.