What is your Achilles eating?

[DNA]

What is your Achilles tang eating and what does he prefer.

[mojodeli]

Get some red/brown nori from an asian market. That's the only thing my achilles would eat.

[dendronepthya]

Mine eats everything except flakes.

[fishtanker]

mine eats nori, ON formula 1&2 flake, zoe and selcon soaked brine . the main thing i've noticed with this fish is that it will get skinny very fast if constant grazing food isn't offered.

[nbo_maya]

Hi There,

I've got 5 tangs:
zebrasoma xanthurum
zebrasoma flavescens
zebrasoma veleiferum
acanthurus achilles
acanthurus japonicus.
I give them 6 times at day some food, most of all spirulina flakes from OSI, 1 x artemia at day and spiruluna tablets.
gr.
Maya

[achilles1]

My achilles prefers OSI spirulina flakes, formula two flakes, fresh and dried seaweeds, brine, zooplackton, and mussel. He doesn't care that much for mysis or squid. He also spends a good amount of time picking off the rocks.
Great fish.

[naesco]

Originally posted by DNA
What is your Achilles tang eating and what does he prefer.

This is a very difficult fish to keep.
Please see www.wetwebmedia.com
Is she eating at all?

REEForm: Never buy a fish from the Philippines or Indonesia where the use of cyanide is rampant.

[naesco]

Originally posted by naesco
This is a very difficult fish to keep.
Please see
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/badacanthurusaq.htm
Is she eating at all?

REEForm: Never buy a fish from the Philippines or Indonesia where the use of cyanide is rampant.

[nbo_maya]

To complete the list:
http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/badfishlist.shtml

gr.
Maya

[DNA]

Some of the foods mine don't eat:

Mixed flakes.
Spirulina flakes.
Spirulina tablets.
Mysis
Shrimp
Squid
and some mixed seafoods I've tried
Feather caulerpa
Grape caulerpa
Valonia
and a few more micro algae I tried.

But he likes Nori alot.
Eats brine shrimp if he is hungry.
He eats coraline algae. That was a suprise. Had a nice wavy coraline build up in the output of my Tunze stream pump. Two seconds after the pump stopped he got to it.

My hippo tang eats all of the above eagerly except for the coraline.

[achilles1]

Let me just say that any fish is hard to keep if you start out with a cheap starved out diseased sh*t specimen. I got my Achilled from from a collector NOT WHOLESALER and he is perfect. Never had ich has been eating since day one etc.. I would say this fish is sensitive to shipping stress and mishandling more than anything. Don't net your friggin tangs people!
Did I pay $45 for him? No, I payed $78 but with that said I only bought ONE instead of two or three trying to get one that lives. If you want this hobby to improve stop buying improperly handled stock.
Once again this is an awsomely beautiful fish that can be enjoyed like any other tang or whatever. And to the tang police get over yourselves! When it gets right down to it about blah blah stocking loads ALL of these fish belong on the reef not in our glass boxes. You can never have an ideal situation when your freedom is taken away. However I love this hobby and care for my specimens as best I can.

[Baalz]

I had my achilles for over a year.. by far my favorite fish and he ate well. Lost him and all my fish from a tripped GFCI.
Friday I picked up another one at lfs. They wanted 100 bucks but I traded some xenia for him
Use some common sense and dont get a sickly looking fish that looks emaciated and dull in color.
My new one is deep black and I watched him eat black worms at lfs. What I learned from my other achilles is that it takes a week or so to get them trained to eat other foods.

I have him in a 180 with only one other larger fish. Never would I put an achilles in a tank short of 6'. They definately need room to swim.

[achilles1]

I definitely aggree with you on the swimming thing. Mine loves to swim all over the tank and surf the currents.
BTW I'm sorry to hear about your loss. If I lost my tank I might quit the hobby. I call my fish the kids. They all have there own personality and are quite special to me. Once again sorry your loss.

[vmiller]

Originally posted by nbo_maya
Hi There,

I've got 5 tangs:
zebrasoma xanthurum
zebrasoma flavescens
zebrasoma veleiferum
acanthurus achilles
acanthurus japonicus.
I give them 6 times at day some food, most of all spirulina flakes from OSI, 1 x artemia at day and spiruluna tablets.
gr.
Maya

Maya,

I'm amazed your two Acanthurids are not killing eachother. If you don't mind me asking, how big is your tank?

I ended up getting 2 6' tanks instead of one large one to be able keep an Achilles and a Powder Blue.

Vin

[DNA]

My Achilles suddenly changed his appetite and has begun to eat all of the flakes and even some mysis. Luckily I won't have to feed him nori for the rest of his life.

[nbo_maya]

Originally posted by vmiller
Maya,

I'm amazed your two Acanthurids are not killing eachother. If you don't mind me asking, how big is your tank?

I ended up getting 2 6' tanks instead of one large one to be able keep an Achilles and a Powder Blue.

Vin

Hi Vin,

my old tank, the one above on the pic is 130 gallon tank en the new one 290.
Recently I moved my animals from my old 130g tank to my new 290 g tank, because I had already 5 tangs i saw this as an unique chance to add a 6th one.

As you can see on the pics I choose for a little A. leucosternon...all my tangs lives in great harmony and they all eat verry good.

gr.
Maya

[nbo_maya]

and this is the new tank


more pics on:


gr.
Maya
http://www.newbandsonline.net/conten...m_2003/web.htm

[achilles1]

I think that food availabilty has as lot to due with their agression. I keep my four tangs (hippo, yellow, Red Sea Sailfin and Achilles) fed all the time. Either they are grazing or I'm putting a little something in. If I feed less frequently they certainly start getting agressive after a couple days. Wouldn't you? Remember traditional reef tanks were fed very little food so the fish were basically in a feast or famine situation so competition was high. Tangs are grazers and need a steady and stable diet to maintain.
FYI my tangs are in my 125 and will be moving into a 330 for X-mas. Those four will also be joined by a powder brown and purple.

[LawnTodd]

I feed my Tangs Red Gracilaria. They love the stuff. I give that a couple times a day and frozen foods once a day (formula2, Spiralina, krill, mysis, clam, kelp cubes,and all green formula)