Acanthurus achilles Shaw, 1803
Achilles tang, 24cm

Acanthurus achilles is seen infrequently at Kwajalein. The first ones we saw were on a shallow lagoon reef next to an atoll pass south of Omelek Island, where there were several individuals in about 3 to 6m of water. We have run across isolated individuals on the seaward reef dropoff and a couple on large lagoon pinnacles, one of whom persisted for a couple of years before he disappeared. We saw a good population of them near the shallow edge of the reef on the south side of Ebadon Island at the northwestern tip of Kwajalein Atoll, but we were there only once so do not know if they are still there. The relatively small one in the first four photos below was on a lagoon pinnacle near the east reef north of Gellinam Island.

Below is one of the first ones we saw in Kwajalein Atoll, south of Omelek in 1975.

Created 8 July 2017

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