Success keeping achilles

[Fishfreak]

I had one in a 6 foot 150 for 3 and a half years. His tank mates included: yellow tang, purple, regal, naso and blue throat trigger. These were only the large fish. When I upgraded to my 400 gallon, they all slowly died within a few weeks of the move. The transfer did them all in. Definitely my favorite fish. Whenever I decide to get one again, I don't think I will be as lucky!

[Willito]

6 foot tank is nice but not a must, mine is in a 4 footer. This is what I find works good:

-Should be one of the first tang in tank
-strong water current
-Run UV before and after adding new fish for a few weeks
-quarantine for the purpose of eating and not disease control

Mine is living with a powder blue and amongst others for almost two years. Prior to this, I lost 5 due to to improper quarantine.

[StirCrazy]

I had mine in my 94 gal tank for 5 years untill my tank was wiped out by a defective heater.

some key requirments are lots of O2, so oversized skimmers run 24/7 work well for this, 0 nitrates is another important thing I found out. the water must be very clean. as for 6 foot tank I will agree to disagree on that one. most of these tank sizes came from when people used to stuff a 100 gal tank with 200 lbs of rock, which resulted in almost no swimming area.

I had 120 lbs of rock in my 94 gal tank aranged in a manor that 3/4 of the tank was open area. so my tank was 3 foot long, 2 foot wide and 25" tall. I never had any problems what so ever, no ich, no nothing.. I bought him.. took him home, dumped the bag out into my fish transfer strainer and put him in the tank. I did ballance the bag water to my tank first.

I have never been a fan of quarenteen tank, I think they do more harm than good, and I never put any other water in my tanks.

there was a good write up on them I found 10 or so years ago that atrubuted 90% of the problems people have with them were related to nitrates in the tank water. a low level isn't good enough, you must have none. the areas where they occure naturaly are not nitrate or nutrent rich area but rather the oposit.

for food, I fed nori, some expensive pellet food, frozen krill, and the ocasional treet of baby brine shrimp.

they are classed as a harder fish, but if you have a mature tank with pristeen water, lots of open swimming area, and lots of flow you should be ok.

as for tank size.. I leve that up to the individual, but I myself having been sucessfull before, wouldent be oposed to put one in a a tank as small as 75 gal depending on the lay out.

Steve

[untamed]

I lost mine at about 3 years. It had ich the entire time, so it is hard for me to believe that ich killed him. Maybe it just took that long to wear down his immune system... Or maybe it was something else.

[tang daddy]

Thanks for sharing the excellent advice guys, I would not consider putting a larger tang in my 75g because I know they like to swim...

So some success has to do with quarantining the fish, making sure it eats well, giving it lots of flow, O2 and zero nitrates. I figured they are ich magnets just like the powder I owned and had great success keeping it.

[Ryan]

75g is way too small for an achilles.

[Tracey2]

I haven't had mine as long as some others on here but its about 2years. He does get a few spots now and then and I bump up the garlic. He eats lots of nori and loves frozen plankton, I take sheets of nori/seaweed and drip selcon, vitamin C and Zoe on them and rub it in with a garlic clove then let the sheets sit to dry, sounds like alot of work but I do enough to last 2-3 weeks. He does love flow and can be aggressive toward the other tangs in the tank especially my hippo. I hope to keep him happy for many more years, he is gorgeous. His name is Axel and I think he will need a bigger tank soon or I will have to remove the naso and the hippo, he has no beefs with the purple tang

[tang daddy]

Originally Posted by Tracey2

I haven't had mine as long as some others on here but its about 2years. He does get a few spots now and then and I bump up the garlic. He eats lots of nori and loves frozen plankton, I take sheets of nori/seaweed and drip selcon, vitamin C and Zoe on them and rub it in with a garlic clove then let the sheets sit to dry, sounds like alot of work but I do enough to last 2-3 weeks. He does love flow and can be aggressive toward the other tangs in the tank especially my hippo. I hope to keep him happy for many more years, he is gorgeous. His name is Axel and I think he will need a bigger tank soon or I will have to remove the naso and the hippo, he has no beefs with the purple tang

Beautiful fish Tracy, thanks for sharing the tips on the recipe... What size tank is the Achilles in?

[Sumfingwong]

Originally Posted by Tracey2

I haven't had mine as long as some others on here but its about 2years. He does get a few spots now and then and I bump up the garlic. He eats lots of nori and loves frozen plankton, I take sheets of nori/seaweed and drip selcon, vitamin C and Zoe on them and rub it in with a garlic clove then let the sheets sit to dry, sounds like alot of work but I do enough to last 2-3 weeks. He does love flow and can be aggressive toward the other tangs in the tank especially my hippo. I hope to keep him happy for many more years, he is gorgeous. His name is Axel and I think he will need a bigger tank soon or I will have to remove the naso and the hippo, he has no beefs with the purple tang

Hey Tracey, what kind of Vitamin C do you use?