Achilles Tang- Should I or shouldnt I

[swavings]

Hello All,

I was at my lfs and have fallen in love with the Achilles tang that is there. When I looked at this fish last week, it had a medium case of ich. I have been there everyday since and he is now doing great, and is eating.

I have heard many stories about these fish in captivity and how they do not last long.

Does anyone have any success or non success stories of having these fish?

 

[Ritchie]

i went through the same thing with my moorish idol, and was lucky enough to have that fish for over a year until i had to sell my tank (regret doing it)
i would say if you have the tank size to put it in go for it, thats the fun part of this addiction being able to keep something rare and delicate in your tank

 

[Rukis]

I have 2 Achilles, one in my display, one in my frag tank, love em!!! They do need some TLC when first acclimating them to your system, long drip acclimation, and I do recommend dipping them, I use Hydroplex. I would also run a UV Sterilizer to contain any ICH outbreaks.

 

[swavings]

I have a 150 reef tank with a six line wrasse, mystery wrasse, niger trigger, yellow tang, hippo tang, and tomini tang, 4 blue chromis, lawnmower blenny, diamond goby, mandarin goby, 2 pajama cardinals, and two onyx clowns.

Does anyone see any issues with my current fish and adding the Achilles?

 

[Ritchie]

I had a yellow a purple and a blue hippo in my 55 with no issues, when I upgraded to the 125 I had the previous 3 plus a sailfin tang the moorish idol a pinktail trigger threadfin bf, and yellow longnose with no problems when I added the new fish I would just put it in one of those small critter boxes to check out the aggression towards the new fish and released him about one to two weeks later With no problems. That's how I would add the Achilles might or might not work tho

 

[mattmike0405]

DO NOT ADD IT MAN. had one for about 1.5 months didnt eat much and had outbreaks of ICH off an on. Ask pauls opinion. They arnt real good fish to have as a hobbiest :-(

 

[BeanMachine]

IMO you already have quite the number of large fish so I would suggest removing a tang or two before you attempt it.

Like Rukis suggested a UV is probably not a bad idea given it carries ich.

 

[Ritchie]

Not trying to sound like an azz but just because you had a bad experience with this fish doesn't mean he will. Well to put it another way, if you like the fish and have a system to support it go for it

 

[dfladermaus]

I would recommend against it. Do you know how big they get? A 150 is WAY too small for one. Not only that, but Achilles are super (hyper) sensitive and very difficult to get to eat when presented with any outside (other fish) stressors. Unless you can QT it for a month to get it eating, I would not recommend this fish to anyone.

 

[gumbii]

it is the best looking tang in the hobby IMO...



but that said, it might be another reason to stress over your tank... why make the hobby stressful...


plus, if you already like your other tank inhabitants, why put them at risk... but if you're baller and stuff, do it... LOL...

 

[JOSE CASAS]

Don't do it as your tank is on the smaller size to fully accommodate it. Also very aggressive to future tangs if you plan on putting any others in the near future.

 

[bullitr]

I am against it as well your tank is too small for this guy IMO long term.

Of all of the fishes that I have and killed in 8 years this is the only fish that I never tried yet because of it's very sensitive and very aggressive when it stabilized....
I will get them next year when all my fishes are been in copper / prazipro qt for more than 2 months .

But if you still wants it get a Qt And make sure you don't have ick on your tank.
If not it will be infected and Hundreds of dollars down the drain.

 

[rayray]

did you get the achilles?

I have always had one in my reefs as they are the neatest tang IMO, the badass name says it all... plus it has this ninja with blood spot feel to it.

Intially it would tend to fight with/be harassed by tangs of the same shape like powder blue/brown, desjar sailfin. Basically any from genus acanthurus spp.

As always, specimen selection is key. Be patient and have your LFS hold one for you that is eating pellet aggresively, has no ich, etc. This is not really a rare fish and not that hard to keep.

You could overnight order it directly from Hawaii as well...

 

[Armen]

dont they need good 200+

 

[Kbra]

Ive had mine for almost a year. I would say to follow Rukis advice about slow acclimation, dip, and UV. It took awhile to eat flake but would eat seaweed within a day or two. Hardy fat fish for me