All About the Achilles Tang (Acanthurus achilles)

Did you know that the person who discovered the Achilles tang (Acanthurus achilles) also discovered the Platypus? Back in the early 1800s George Shaw described the Achilles tang based on a specimen discovered in Hawaii.
Keeping an Achilles tang in your own reef tank doesn't have to be hard - start with a big tank with lots of flow, follow proper quarantine to eliminate ich, and feed it lots of nori or similar foods. If you can keep up with their active lifestyle and reduce their aggressive tendencies, you'll find the Achilles tang makes a great reef tank fish.
Sorry for the flicker in this video - I was trying a new method of organizing my notes and it turns out using a tablet makes some flicker on my face. Sorry!
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[@JacquesTreehorn]

I have seen huge schools of these in Kwajalein RMI. They school up and swim fast.

[@snake61007]

i wanna go to kwaj

[@captivebredcanada]

One of my all time favourite fish. Mine did okay in a standard 180 (6x2x2), I had just one other tang. If you have a healthy Achilles you know you have a disease free tank as they will pretty much pick up anything. I am a little surprised you say they are not that hard. In the couple of years I had him I had to tear down the reef to catch all my fish as a non fish item brought in ich. Probably never would have known if not for him as he was the only one who actually got spots. I knew they were a common fish, but didn't realize their range was so great. Hopefully we will see new collection areas if things don't improve with Hawaii legislation but it's looking like it will..

[@ReefMan]

Thanks! I am super careful to quarentine and brush/dip anything that goes into my tank. I've been lucky about not getting ich via a coral frag though as I don't have a proper QT tank for my corals. Other than the agression, I haven't really had any issues with my Achilles Tang - this tank was actually planned around it and it's needs. I do wish it would leave my blue spotted angelfish alone though!

[@Chokerdown]

Good vid. My favorite fish. Ich bombs tho. I find they arent as aggressive as a Sohal or Clown tang...Ive had all three.

[@ReefMan]

Yea mine isn't all that aggressive in the grand scheme of things. I recommend and use the tank transfer method which pretty much makes ich a non factor in my tank.

[@lachino8520]

Any chance you would know why the price is so dramatically high compared to a powder blue or powder brown?

[@ReefMan]

I think it's because they're almost entirely collected in Hawaii and they're found very close to shore (wave zone) where it's dangerous to dive. That leads to not a huge amount being collected, and a higher price.

[@allanjr808]

@@ReefMan not nessasarily, we find tons of Achilles tang pretty much everywhere on oahu. Not sure why they're so expensive considering how easy they are too catch. I find most of them in deeper water +15 feet

[@ReefMan]

Interesting! All the papers I saw said that while they could be in deeper water they'd be most common amongst the wave zone. Thanks for the information!

[@1reefluvr2]

Because people pay those crazy prices and say its a must havr collector show fish and people take hook and sinker and get one

[@ReefMan]

For sure whatever people will pay is what companies will charge 😎

[@saltyfarms]

I just got one wish me luck 😰

[@ReefMan]

I don't find mine to be hard to take care of. Make sure you have enough flow, feed it well, and I'm sure it'll do well for you. Good luck!

[@Gogol9108]

Is it readily available right now?

[@ReefMan]

They're pretty commonly available.

[@Gogol9108]

@@ReefMan Thank you for ur kind information 😊

[@Gogol9108]

In many articles Achilles tang is marked as a rare fish.. Whereas i've also found that this is hardly available in some of reputed marine fish store in India.. Can u pls tell me why is that so?

[@ReefMan]

​@@Gogol9108 it's probably just due to the limited collection that it gets from Hawaii. A lot of its range is in protected nearshore waters (which is good, it's important to protect wild populations) but as I understand it, the achilles tang just isn't collected in any real volume. That makes it much rarer in the hobby than it is in the wild.

[@Gogol9108]

@@ReefMan Thank you for ur information 👍