Achilles Tang Primer

[FiReBReTHa]

Ok after the intro. to the DT he has a couple spots of ick. Has anyone ever had an achilles that never had ick?

Nope, In my opinion from what I have read on ick and tangs is that its like a cold/flu that when healthy and good nutrition you can kick easier.

You can wrap some mysis up in nori and clip it for him. Same with squid chunks

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Rods food Sammich!!!

My achilles is much more active at night, Even with all lights off he swims around very actively. Maybe thats what the blue rings around the eyes are for???
Dunnp but he seems to see just fine in jet black conditions.

mine is not more active, he just gets really ****ed if you come near the tank at night.



A Video of mine starts towards the end where you see him in the last 30 seconds.
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[blennielove]

Merry Christmas!
I've read through ALL the posts twice.
The first time, I decided NOT to get an achilles as I've already experienced the Powder Blue Blues = ICH, which means I've got my Powder Blue Tang (3 inch), Atlantic Blue Tang (2 inch), Flame Angel (1 1/2 inch) in a 55 gallon hospital tank. After 3 weeks of no reinfection after quinine sulfate treatment, I decided to restock. So off to the LFS I go...I bought a 4 inch Kole Tang to replace the one that died and saw a beautiful 6 inch Achilles. Remembering what I've read, I decided against it and went home. Well, several days later, went back to LFS looking for some other replacements, thought - Everyone's in QT and I'm planning one prophylactic quinine sulfate treatment anyways prior to reintroduction back to fallow DT after 6 weeks... That Achilles is still there and what? All tangs are 20% off?!? Well, talked with my favorite LFS assistant, so I came home with that gorgeous Achilles Tang. They've had the fish for around 5 weeks and it was plump. No sunken abdomen, no blotchy coloring, I saw it eat some calerpa algae. Another great thing is that they will let me try it out with my tangs to see if they get along and will let me take it back if they fight - granted alive in one piece and not too badly hurt.
Good news is that it is getting along well with EVERYONE in the 55 gallon hospital tank and it's been in there for a week. It did break out with ich two days ago but I dosed quinine sulfate and it's almost all gone. Sounds pretty good so far right? Well, here is the issue. I've never SEEN this guy eat! He is still full in the face and on his back but his belly is somewhat "less" full. I've tried everything to get him to eat - Red/Green/Brown marine algae, Formula one and two pellets, Spectrum Pellets, Live gracilis algae, frozen brine/mysis/formula one and two gel, with/without Selcon/garlic. He watches all the other tang eat everything. The food gets his attention because he will swim up to look at it but does not eat. What do you guys/gals suggest? I thought of just throwing him in the 225 display but it has only been fallow for 4 weeks. I want at least 6. Should I take him back to the LFS?

 

[Creetin]

Thats a main concern ,ost of us have and why so many just throw them in the DT. Getting them to eat in A QT is almost impossable and most wither away. If they do make it to the DT they are already too far gone. IMO
I have tried 2 in Qt and both did the same as you describe. The best was with adding them to the DT, but you risk your other fishs health because they will get ich no matter what. This last one i have had for 2 mos now and he eats like a pig, But has small issues with ich and is battling it. My other tangs/fish have yet to show signs of ich, But that does not mean that they dont have any. We have no fool proof way of keeping these fish just observations. Seems by the way its been going here in this thread that a DT like atmosphere is the best place to keep/get them eating. I may set up a temp 150 gal hospital and treat all the fish and let the DT fallow if it gets too bad. But for now he seems to be weathering it good and the other fish are no affected yet. (That i can see)
Good lick! One thing i see that all the achilles liked was to smash up nori to small sized flakes to get them started on them.

 

[blennielove]

Thank you!
I read about smashing up the nori yesterday, so I made this wonderful mush of red and green nori with Selcon and vitamins with both fresh chopped garlic and GarlicXtreme. He swam up and looked at it, I thought he would take a bite - it even smelled good to me!
I like your idea of a 150 gallon hospital tank. The hard thing with that will be to get the biological filter set. It seems like the Achilles don't tolerate Copper well as many posts I've read said that they died hours after treating with Copper. My is doing fine with the quinine sulfate on day 3 now so you might want to think of having that ready.
Best wishes to you and your achilles!

 

[inthesea]

i JUST purchased a 4 inch archilles tang today. He is been in the lfs for 2 weeks and eats nori and mysis. I have him in my 30g qt tank with live rock. I read some of the post here saying to just introduce the archilles tang direclty in the DT. Is it wise to do so or just keep him in my QT for a week or so. Thanks,

 

[sanchoy]

Heres my 2 cents with achilles.

If you visually seen a specimen at the LFS and the fish is doing well eating/swimming/free of diseases. Your odds will be better if you do not quarantine. By placing the achilles in a small Quarantine tank you are inducing added stress. Most achilles will not eat in QT, and some even develope ick and die.

When you drop over $100 on any fish you want the best thing thats possible. Putting him in a established DT tank will be the best way to go with this fragile species.

My friend bought one and placed it in QT for 4 weeks. The fish starved to death and died due to ick/stress. I put mine directly into DT after a brief inspection period of 2weeks and he lived. In the QT mine refused to eat and only nibbled at stuff, in the DT he is boss hog.

 

[WuHT]

Heres my 2 cents with achilles.

If you visually seen a specimen at the LFS and the fish is doing well eating/swimming/free of diseases. Your odds will be better if you do not quarantine. By placing the achilles in a small Quarantine tank you are inducing added stress. Most achilles will not eat in QT, and some even develope ick and die.

When you drop over $100 on any fish you want the best thing thats possible. Putting him in a established DT tank will be the best way to go with this fragile species.

My friend bought one and placed it in QT for 4 weeks. The fish starved to death and died due to ick/stress. I put mine directly into DT after a brief inspection period of 2weeks and he lived. In the QT mine refused to eat and only nibbled at stuff, in the DT he is boss hog.

It'll be just how much you value whatever else you have in your DT tank, multiplied by the likelihood of them catching w/e parasites the achilles tang will bring in. If this is lower than the value of the achilles to you, then the decision should be to skip the QT.

If you only had some damsels, and seeded baserock, then i'm sure anyone would take the safer chance of just dumping their achilles in (tougher to add other fish later though).

Again this is a problem where you have to build the aquarium around the fish in the first place.

Dollar wise, an achilles is about the same as all my other fish combined, but I didnt' think it would be fair of me to risk the health of the other fish over an achilles.

 

[Mike de Leon]

i JUST purchased a 4 inch archilles tang today. He is been in the lfs for 2 weeks and eats nori and mysis. I have him in my 30g qt tank with live rock. I read some of the post here saying to just introduce the archilles tang direclty in the DT. Is it wise to do so or just keep him in my QT for a week or so. Thanks,

If your QT is quite established and the fish is eating well I would leave him in there to fatten up, if not he needs to go into an established tank or he will deteriorate and kick the bucket.

 

[inthesea]

ok thanks I'll keep an eye on him.

 

[reefslugs]

Merry Christmas!
I've read through ALL the posts twice.
The first time, I decided NOT to get an achilles as I've already experienced the Powder Blue Blues = ICH, which means I've got my Powder Blue Tang (3 inch), Atlantic Blue Tang (2 inch), Flame Angel (1 1/2 inch) in a 55 gallon hospital tank. After 3 weeks of no reinfection after quinine sulfate treatment, I decided to restock. So off to the LFS I go...I bought a 4 inch Kole Tang to replace the one that died and saw a beautiful 6 inch Achilles. Remembering what I've read, I decided against it and went home. Well, several days later, went back to LFS looking for some other replacements, thought - Everyone's in QT and I'm planning one prophylactic quinine sulfate treatment anyways prior to reintroduction back to fallow DT after 6 weeks... That Achilles is still there and what? All tangs are 20% off?!? Well, talked with my favorite LFS assistant, so I came home with that gorgeous Achilles Tang. They've had the fish for around 5 weeks and it was plump. No sunken abdomen, no blotchy coloring, I saw it eat some calerpa algae. Another great thing is that they will let me try it out with my tangs to see if they get along and will let me take it back if they fight - granted alive in one piece and not too badly hurt.
Good news is that it is getting along well with EVERYONE in the 55 gallon hospital tank and it's been in there for a week. It did break out with ich two days ago but I dosed quinine sulfate and it's almost all gone. Sounds pretty good so far right? Well, here is the issue. I've never SEEN this guy eat! He is still full in the face and on his back but his belly is somewhat "less" full. I've tried everything to get him to eat - Red/Green/Brown marine algae, Formula one and two pellets, Spectrum Pellets, Live gracilis algae, frozen brine/mysis/formula one and two gel, with/without Selcon/garlic. He watches all the other tang eat everything. The food gets his attention because he will swim up to look at it but does not eat. What do you guys/gals suggest? I thought of just throwing him in the 225 display but it has only been fallow for 4 weeks. I want at least 6. Should I take him back to the LFS?

Here's my thought. That achillies was at the lfs for five weeks doing well. You should have put him straight in your DT. When achillies arrive at the lft, the first week is the hardest. If he makes it past the first week and will eat, he is one that might have a chance to servive. So this achilles was there for five weeks, he's a keeper. Did you read my post, about how I feel about QT with an achillies? Achillies requirer a large tank, tons of flow, and heavey feedings. QT= death.

Now you have this achillies in a QT and he's not happy. Here's what I would do. Either through him in the DT or remove all other fish that are with him in the QT. Make sure you have like a Maxii jet mod blowing ACROSS the tank. Have rocks in there for him to hide behind. Quit putting crap in the water. Buy two cleaner shrimps to help keep him clean. And hang nori from a clip. Leave it in there at all times but don't let it get rotten. Soon after doing this you should see him purc back up. Then the day you see him come up to the top of the water cause he nows your going to feed him. Put him in the DT. Always keep cleaner shrimp in the DT. Get several cause you'll see the fish waiting in line to be cleaned.

 

[reefslugs]

update.

update.

Just wanted to update everyone on how my achillies is doing. I am glad people are still writeing in on this post. I am very happy that people who have never had an achillies are doing there home work and taking some of our advises.

Update, I am the crazy one who tried putting two achillies together. Surprisenlly they got along great. But ran into the problem of one of them not eating very agressively. No matter how much I fed, he just kept getting skinner and skinner. Now I just have the one. He is by far the best one I have ever kept. He eats what ever I put in the tank and now I have him eating on pellets. Wait til you see how fat he is.

<a href="http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/?action=view&current=DSC07624.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/DSC07624.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/?action=view&current=DSC07952.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/DSC07952.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Check out the belly!!!

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<a href="http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/?action=view&current=DSC07947.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/DSC07947.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/?action=view&current=DSC07949.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/reefsluge/DSC07949.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[sanchoy]

Very nice fish there..

For those that have not bought an achilles before I know you wonder if it is worth the $ching$ you put into one. Most suppliers will charge you over $200 after all the shipping is included. That is alot of dough to be coughing up for one fish. Plus you don't even know what you are going to get.

My advice will be:
-Buy one from the LFS. That way you can visually see if it is worth the money.
-If you decide to ship, and the fish arrives at your house fat,nice color, ick free. Than put into DT.
-If the fish arrives, skinny, shows signs of stress. Than put into QT.
-If you decide to QT have at least a 55 gallon or larger QT, with lots of flow.
-If you have already an established other tang in the DT, move him and put him into the QT. After you introduce the achilles, than reintroduce the other tang.
-Flow, flow, flow.. All tangs like flow. I have kept Sohal,Yellow,Purple,Blue hippo,powder brown,Tomino,Sailfin,Achilles and all have survived so far. The only tang that broke out with small ick was my last addition (the achilles). I strongly believe that strong water flow helped reduce stress, anger, which in turn contained any ick surfacing.

 

[inthesea]

I purchased one from lfs yesterday. He's been there for couple weeks and eating mysis and nori. I put him in a 30g established qt but he would not move and just hung in front of the PH. This morning I moved him to the DT and he is doing fine. He eats nori that is shredded. I put some nori in the PH and shredd it and blows across the tank. Also he ate some of my homemade food. My PB is is showing him who is the boss of the tank but other than that he is doing good so far.

 

[reefslugs]

I purchased one from lfs yesterday. He's been there for couple weeks and eating mysis and nori. I put him in a 30g established qt but he would not move and just hung in front of the PH. This morning I moved him to the DT and he is doing fine. He eats nori that is shredded. I put some nori in the PH and shredd it and blows across the tank. Also he ate some of my homemade food. My PB is is showing him who is the boss of the tank but other than that he is doing good so far.

See this is what I'm talking about. Don't QT them. The powder blue will mess with him for about 24 hours. Then he'll let up, but every wants in a while give a little flicker. Don't be surprised if the table turns.

 

[Sardaukar]

See this is what I'm talking about. Don't QT them. The powder blue will mess with him for about 24 hours. Then he'll let up, but every wants in a while give a little flicker. Don't be surprised if the table turns.

No offense, but all that post indicates is the obvious fact that an achilles tang is going to be stressed in a tiny 30g tank.

 

[theisdept]

Been wanting one of these. We already have a Vlamingi and a Yellow and I don't know if that could work in a 180 gal. tank.

 

[Creetin]

If you dont mind the trouble that they cause then go for it, But they take alot of care and most of the time it ends poorly.
Wish they were easier to keep. My favorite fish.

 

[blennielove]

Update on my Achilles Tang:
Short catch up from several days ago: Purchased AT on 12/18 and placed in 55 gallon QT with PBT, ABT, KT, cleaner wrasse, clown fairy wrasse, and flame angel. Everyone was in my QT because of recent ich and I'm letting DT go fallow. 5 days later - ich on AT ONLY, started Quinine sulphate treatment and today is day 7 of QS treatment. Problem with AT was that he was not eating, though he had eaten at the LFS for 5 weeks.
Ich appears to be cleared up. The AT I think is eating, just not when I'm watching him because even though he lost weight, he is not loosing more. He is alert and playful with the cleaner wrasse and he enjoys hanging out with the Clown Fairy Wrasse. His favorite activity is swimming against the currents from the powerheads and filters. He is showing interest in food, tasting some omega enriched brine but then spits them out. I put a variety of marine algae in there throughout the day and some calerpas.
I respect everyones advice regarding QT and I am ready to take him out if he starts declining. So far, he is still a very deep maroon brown with no blotches and he has bright eyes.
I will try feeding some live brine tomorrow.

 

[Creetin]

When mine is brown it usually means it wants to be cleaned or stressed.
You started treatment on hom no sense putting him in a tank that is known to have ich.
Just keep water clean and fresh.
I dont like the sulfate treatment as you cannot change water frequently as i would like in a hospital tank.
Plus it kills the cycle.
Good luck!!!

 

[blennielove]

I do a 20 gallon water change on the HT every night and redose with quinine. I've spoken with National Fish Pharmacy and they say that quinine does not do much to bacteria as it kills protozoans. The color of the AT is the same as it was when I bought it. I thought they are sort of a maroon brown color - oh my. It looks like the same color as all the ones in the picture on this site...Am I color blind?!?