Hard to feed and requiring perfect water quality is the description for EVERY tang. It is the main reason the so many people say that tangs are "prone" to Ich. Tangs are no more prone to Ich than any other fish, they simply get stressed without a rich algae supply for them to graze throughout the day, and get sick as a result. Achilles tangs are great looking fish. They are great fish for the aquarium so long as you have the swimming space, keep your ammonia and nitrites at zero, and keep your nitrates down to acceptable levels.
Perfect water quality is hard to come by, but I help a friend maintain his tank and he may have just done it. He has a 75 gallon tank with a 6 inch DSB and 125 lbs of live and base rock, plumbed to a 20 gallon sump where he is running a gigantic skimmer. His ammonia and nitrites are zero, and his nitrates are an astonishing 10 ppm. That's as close to perfect as I've ever seen. He keeps a flame angelfish, a purple tang, a huma-huma trigger, and a couple of green chromis.
Five months ago, his tank wasn't so pristine. He had a crushed coral substrate, no skimmer, and his nitrates were through the roof (around 150 ppm). Accordingly, his fish weren't doing as well as they are now, especially the tang and the angel.
Perfect water quality is hard to come by, but I help a friend maintain his tank and he may have just done it. He has a 75 gallon tank with a 6 inch DSB and 125 lbs of live and base rock, plumbed to a 20 gallon sump where he is running a gigantic skimmer. His ammonia and nitrites are zero, and his nitrates are an astonishing 10 ppm. That's as close to perfect as I've ever seen. He keeps a flame angelfish, a purple tang, a huma-huma trigger, and a couple of green chromis.
Five months ago, his tank wasn't so pristine. He had a crushed coral substrate, no skimmer, and his nitrates were through the roof (around 150 ppm). Accordingly, his fish weren't doing as well as they are now, especially the tang and the angel.
