achilles tang

[kiwi fruit]

hi everyone! i seem to be having troubles with understanding behaviors of the achilles tang. i've tried finding information on the internet, but there seems to be very minimal information. maybe someone on this site can help me out a little. i have a 72gal. aquarium with about 90lbs of live rock or so, and 2-3 inches of live crush corals. set up with protein skimmer, bio chamber, uv sterilizer, and filter. i also have carbon, nitrate remover, and purigen all as medias. yesturday i purchased an achilles tang. i believe it's a juvenille because the orange spot on its back is barely there. when i put it into the tank(of coure i slowly acclimated the cute thing) it seems to be doing fine, and i was sure it adjusted pretty quickly. now im not so sure. majority of the time the achilles tang would hide at a certain area behind the rocks, it will come to the front of the tank and swiftly go back behind the rock again. it wont eat anything i offer ( flakes, plankton, brineshrimp) and it will only pick at the algae or whatever is on the rocks. i have a few questions and please any information will be greatly appreciated. thank you

1) is this normal for an achilles tang to just graze among the rocks and not eat any thing else?

2)if this habit continues, will it slowly starve itself to death?

[weileong]

Your AT is still stressed as you just introduced it into a new enviroment, it'll need a few days to get used to your tank and willl be out swimming.

You'll need to try to get it to eat, you can try using bite sized nori, you may need to flood your tank with it to get it to eat. Then after that slowly try to get it onto prepared food like pellets.

[damien]

Since it's grazing, that is already a good start. They will take some time to recognise pellets, nori as 'food'.

[veliferium]

bro, i think you may want to try food soaked in garlic or cyclopeeze.

[Nemofish]

hi everyone! i seem to be having troubles with understanding behaviors of the achilles tang. i've tried finding information on the internet, but there seems to be very minimal information. maybe someone on this site can help me out a little. i have a 72gal. aquarium with about 90lbs of live rock or so, and 2-3 inches of live crush corals. set up with protein skimmer, bio chamber, uv sterilizer, and filter. i also have carbon, nitrate remover, and purigen all as medias. yesturday i purchased an achilles tang. i believe it's a juvenille because the orange spot on its back is barely there. when i put it into the tank(of coure i slowly acclimated the cute thing) it seems to be doing fine, and i was sure it adjusted pretty quickly. now im not so sure. majority of the time the achilles tang would hide at a certain area behind the rocks, it will come to the front of the tank and swiftly go back behind the rock again. it wont eat anything i offer ( flakes, plankton, brineshrimp) and it will only pick at the algae or whatever is on the rocks. i have a few questions and please any information will be greatly appreciated. thank you

1) is this normal for an achilles tang to just graze among the rocks and not eat any thing else?

2)if this habit continues, will it slowly starve itself to death?

how old is your tk?

[untouchables]

if the at is not eating right now, dun try to feed it cos u will only add to its stress by being near the tank and contaminating ur tank with leftover food.

if it is grazing on the rock, that is a good sign that it is eating. juz not what u want it to eat! leave it alone for 2-3 days.

after a few days, put in some frozen mysis. it should start taking the food.

i have not fed my tangs and fishes for many many weeks. so far all still healthy and stomach firm, not sunken. there is sufficient food if u dun overstock ur tank and if ur tank is mature.