Achilles Tang Primer

[reefslugs]

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?!?

As far as their colors, when they are happy, they are the dark maroon brown color with brown eyes. When they get mad, they are very dark brown almost black with dark blue eyes. When they want to be cleaned they turn a lite blue color with lite blue eyes. Look back in this post and you'll see some one took pictures of their different attitudes.

Also make sure the cleaner wrasse is not bugging the crap out the the Achilles. They are known to keep picking on a fish even though the fish does not want to be touched, which causes stress.

 

[blennielove]

He's just like you describe a dark maroon brown with brown eyes. He never shows the "blue" eyes and I now know why he chases the cleaner wrasse every once in a while. There are several fishes in there with him so the cleaner's affection is spread out pretty well. I think I'm lucky that he is a very gentle giant at twice the size of the PBT and KT, I just would LOVE to see him eat though.

 

[TheMcs]

End of October '09 marked 1 year for my Achilles. He's still fat & happy. I think the biggest thing for these fish aside from water flow/oxygenation is constant monitoring. As soon as I notice something amiss I try something new. When I couldn't keep it fat I dropped the temp a couple degrees and upped the Selcon. When it got picky about frozen I changed brands.
What marks this fish as expert care is not only the system requirements, but also the monitoring needed and especially the knowledge of what to do with the results of your observations.
These are great fish, mine has plenty of personality as has been peaceful with the yellow & naso once dominance was established.

 

[inthesea]

I purchased mine on 12/23 and placed him in qt but he was not happy in a 30g. I moved him to DT with my PB, PT and hippo in my 250g. The PB gave him a hard time and would not let him eat, but now he eat nori, homemade food and PE mysis. HE gets ich now and then but I feed him good and so far he is doing good.

 

[Fish Dog]

First of All, This is a Great Thread!!!

Now this is my second go around with the AT. First one lived for a month and after dosing my tank with to much fresh minced garlic, it seems I had a sudden PH drop from 8.3 to 7.6 and my 3" AT lost his slime coat and die the next day.

Now I have a 4" AT that I have had for a week and he eating like a pig. Anything I put in the tank he eats. (90g bowfront). I know, everyone will say that tank is to small or what have you but this is what I have right now and will be upgrading in March to a 125g.

Need a little advice, he got ich on day 2, and I have been dosing the tank with Kordon's Ick Attack, which I think is at least keeping the ich under control.

FOWLR and it's been at semi-hypo for about a month (1.013).

I am thinking about going ahead and dropping the it to 1.009 which I know works because I have a Gold rim in a 20g that was covered in ich and 1.009 hypo worked for him.

What do you all think about going hypo with my Live still in there. Like I said it's been like this for a month and the only inverts that survived are my snails and crabs.

Tank mates are; 4" Yellow Belly Hippo, 5" Fowleri Tang, 4" Scribbled Angel, and of course 2" Cleaner Wrasse.

Talk to me........

 

[reefslugs]

First of All, This is a Great Thread!!!

Now this is my second go around with the AT. First one lived for a month and after dosing my tank with to much fresh minced garlic, it seems I had a sudden PH drop from 8.3 to 7.6 and my 3" AT lost his slime coat and die the next day.

Now I have a 4" AT that I have had for a week and he eating like a pig. Anything I put in the tank he eats. (90g bowfront). I know, everyone will say that tank is to small or what have you but this is what I have right now and will be upgrading in March to a 125g.

Need a little advice, he got ich on day 2, and I have been dosing the tank with Kordon's Ick Attack, which I think is at least keeping the ich under control.

FOWLR and it's been at semi-hypo for about a month (1.013).

I am thinking about going ahead and dropping the it to 1.009 which I know works because I have a Gold rim in a 20g that was covered in ich and 1.009 hypo worked for him.

What do you all think about going hypo with my Live still in there. Like I said it's been like this for a month and the only inverts that survived are my snails and crabs.

Tank mates are; 4" Yellow Belly Hippo, 5" Fowleri Tang, 4" Scribbled Angel, and of course 2" Cleaner Wrasse.

Talk to me........

Number one, don't do any sudden changes. Number two, you have two other tangs in the tank, which I'm sure gave your achillies a little harassment. My opinion would be not to change anything. That also means keep your hands out of it. Don't move any rocks or coral. What I mean is don't freak out if he gets a little ich and start pouring in a bunch of miracle potions and change water parameters. Leave the tank a lone. You may want to add a second cleaner shrimp, so all fish get a turn to be clean. Not just the fish in charge of the tank. The only other thing is just to just keep feeding the achillies what ever it likes and make sure he gets enough. Hope this helps. I Love these guys.
.

 

[hybridazn]

yea your best bet is to just leave the tank alone. most ppl dont realize how tough tangs really are. yes they get ich rather easily but most of the time they can kick it just as fast. moving stuff around and adding a ton of "medicine" will just add more stress and be fatal on the fish.

i hope everything works out, these are def. my fav. fish and i will have one one day, when i upgrade to my bigger tank lol.

 

[WuHT]

The thing is this : Does the other fish in the tank now end up with ich as well ? Tangs are reputed to show ich first.. but my last clown tang did not show any sign of ich at all (no scratching, no spots on body or fins) when the rest of my tank (angel, butterfly, even trigger) showed noticeable sign of the disease.

 

[ryshark]

yea your best bet is to just leave the tank alone. most ppl dont realize how tough tangs really are. yes they get ich rather easily but most of the time they can kick it just as fast. moving stuff around and adding a ton of "medicine" will just add more stress and be fatal on the fish.

i hope everything works out, these are def. my fav. fish and i will have one one day, when i upgrade to my bigger tank lol.

I agree, and I learned my lesson the hard way. This happened awhile ago now, but I wish I would had left the fish alone when a powder brown got ich. My favorite fish in the tank, a blue hippo tang I had for a couple years, did not have ich but I pulled all the fish into QT and they all stressed and died. My hippo tang was the last to go, it was sad to watch. I know if I would have "let it takes its course" I would have been better off.

 

[Fish Dog]

Thanks for the advice you all. All I did was a water change, 5 gallons RO and a 5 gallon mixture of saltwater at 1.010 and lowered the SG to 1.011.

Achilles did have a few issues with my Fowleri Tang, but the A T seems to be trying to take over the tank at this point. The AT is really aggressive and does try to hog the Cleaner Wrasse services. With my SG at 1.011, can I put a cleaner shrimp in there? I think that will be to low of a SG for a Shrimp.

Other option would be to get another Cleaner wrasse, but will they fight each other.

AT had a little ich on him this morning, but I'm sure the CW will have cleaned it off by the time I get home.

The way I dose with BW Garlic and BW Vitamarin C is, mixed both in a cup and let frozen spirulina brine mysis and flake/pellet food sit in there for about 30 mins, then put a little tank water in it and drop in the tank. Does anyone have a better way or is this ok.

BTW, My LFS guy went to Hawaii on vacation and hand picked this guy for me, quarantined him for two weeks and then I brought him home. He is one of the strongest AT I have seen and I am just trying not to be the reason he does not last. Keep the information coming. It is well appreciated.

 

[tm613]

Cleaner wrasses don't eat ich...They eat other parasites like lymph and they eat scales and slime

 

[ryshark]

You can't put shrimp in hypo-salinity

 

[prsammons]

I didn't think Cleaner Wrasses did well in captivity.

 

[ryshark]

They don't, they typically die. The cleaner/neon gobies do better.

 

[Fish Dog]

Update on the my A T. He is doing very well as far as eating. He's getting FAT and will eat anything, but loves brine shrimp and Nori. Still has slight case of the ich. It seems he will have it early morning and by mid-day he doesn't. Cleaner wrasse may not eat ich but they sure do knock it off of the fish.

I hear a lot of people saying the blue streak cleaner wrasse don't survive in captivity but I have had mine for almost a year and my Cleaner wrasse also eats anything. He even eats nori and is just as fat as my fish.

I'm just trying to be patience and let the ich run it's course but I hate seeing ich on my Achilles. A T is the only one affected by the ich.

Has anyone tried using fresh minced garlic? If so, how much is to much. I have just been using BW Garlic power.

 

[Matt G]

I have had my Achilles for a little over 2 years. It is in a 6 x 2 x 2.5 reef tank with 4 tunze streams. It loves riding the flow. It is in the tank with a Majestic Angel, Yellow Tang, Sailfin Tang, 2 x carberryi anthis, 2 x clowns, 2 x mandarins, choati wrasse, leopard wrasse, peacock wrasse, 3 x potters wrasses (2 were added yesterday).

It eats most frozen, flake, pellets, nori. I left in my LFS for a month or so before I took it as my new tank wasn't ready and it was one of the first fish added. It didn't go into QT, but the holding tank at the LFS was small.

I am considering removing my salifin as it is now getting bigger and it and the AT have started sparing.

The only picture I can find

 

[Fish Dog]

Matt G, Nice AT!

Questions? Did your AT get ich when first introduced to your tank?

Does it ever get ich after adding another fish to your tank?

 

[Matt G]

Thanks.

I really don't like tempting fate, but no it hasn't had ich at all so far (he says touching wood). It had a couple of flukes initially, but I believe that the cleaner shrimps dealt with that.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Does anyone keep these without cleaner shrimp or a cleaner wrasse?
Does it make it much more difficult to keep without the cleaners?
I've always loved the Achilles and have been reading/debating for a long time. I think I want to try to add one to my 275 display but I have a sting ray and I don't think the cleaners will make it...

 

[seabayaquatic]

Just out of curiosity, how many people that have an achilles run a UV sterilizer? Thanks in advance.

UV's are useless for controlling parasites, but work decently for algae control. You'd go bankrupt running all the UV light it would take to actually control parasites with a UV sterilizer.

Ozone is a much more effective way to control parasites. The biggest key factor with successfully maintaining an Acilles Tang is to keep dissolved oxygen near saturation. Lots of water movement and ozone can acheive this!