Please help ID this tang

[huanjie]

Bought this fella when it was juv, thought it was a orange-band, and grown up to be a kole look-alike.. haha.. but there is no ring around the eye, is this a kole ?

Thanks !

[bubble_gum]

doubt its a kole. kole has a yellow eye. this has a blue eye rim. same family i think. saw the same fish at bio-ocean b4. nice

[thioeh]

Lavender tang, a very good algae eater

[huanjie]

Thank you ! hmm.. strange isn't it, wonder how it gots its name..

it was pure yellow when young, and now dark yellow to brown....

Yeah, a brilliant alage eater, from diatoms to macro, can see the mouth prints all over the diatom on the glass ...Thanks !

[thioeh]

This fish sometime also call as brown tang, a very nice fish with blue dot and eye with yellowish brown colour on the body, it even clear the algea on the glass of the tank leaving mouth marking all over the tank, i keep one also, like it so much, very hardworking eating all the algea in my tank.

[Blenny]

hey guys where did you get it from?

[huanjie]

I got mine from pasir ris about 8 months ago , its seasonal I think.....

ands its really difficult to tell what species it is when they are young its all yellow ...

[huanjie]

This fish sometime also call as brown tang, a very nice fish with blue dot and eye with yellowish brown colour on the body, it even clear the algea on the glass of the tank leaving mouth marking all over the tank, i keep one also, like it so much, very hardworking eating all the algea in my tank.

yeah, has to agree with you. Its a fun fish to have, it attack the magnet cleaner everytime i scrap off the diatom off the glass as the cleaning took his food away

[Terryz_]

Cute guy...

[Gambit]

does it eat hair algae????

[huanjie]

does it eat hair algae????

Not on the top of its menu, but will eat when no choice, especially when first introduce(probably resemsbles more to its natural source of food) ,but now prefer the food it is fed.

[dradttg]

hey guys where did you get it from?

You can try Oxxxxx Pxxxxx. There should be another 1-3 left.

[KingFish]

I believe its a Ctenochaetus binotatus, you can almost see the similar pattern as it morph into adult colours.

I'm hoping mine will turn out the one with the yellow tail.

Not your regular Bristletooth, Kole & Chevron (*yawn) and is very industrious as its known to feed by scooping film of detritus and unicellular algae (e.g. dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus)

Let me know how it turns out

[KingFish]

Extra info here for those interested:

So since fish from this genus eats dinoflagellates, its contains two toxins.

Ciguatoxin, is a fat-soluble toxin which is found in the meat, and Maitotoxin, a water-soluble toxin is found in the liver.

These fishes have been found to be associated with Ciguatera poisoning events so don't even think about consuming this fish or 'adding' it to your prepared feed

[huanjie]

Hmmm. the more I look at it the more it looks like Ctenochaetus binotatus.

Had been mis-informing people that see the fish from orange-band, to kole to lavender haha... luckily the care for most tangs are similar.... I hope this fella will retains its yellow tail too...

[jc85]

The Two-spot Bristletooth is orange-brown with fine blue lines. It has blue eyes, blue spots on the head and thorax and a black spot at the rear base of the dorsal and ###### fins.

If its really a twospot, the blue ring around the eyes should develop as it matures. :

[KingFish]

A pic I found on Ctenochaetus binotatus. Two-spot Bristletooth.

Looks like one from the Australian northwestern coast, if we got ours from Indopacific, they may just turn out drab brown.

The yellow tailed ones have been identified as a juvenile before, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed, and make sure it feeds on the algae & our prepared food, possibly with some competition to keep its colours going.

It belongs under the Acanthuridae-Ctenochaetus class, so technically, its still a surgeonfish

[jc85]

Yes. Got the pic from there.

Think below one from Indo, indeed look dark brown. Almost cannot see the two spot and blue ring.

Beautiful fish, i must say.

[huanjie]

This tang is full of suprise, first it was the identity now it is the choice of food.

Just saw it pulling the shit out from the clown tang and swallow it full !! .... , the only fish that is gutsy enought to chase the clown tang for its shit.. haha...

once in a while he eat the yellow tang's shit, but only bit and pieces never right from the ######(pardon my language), I guess he prefer digested meaty food more as the clown eat mostly meaty food.

[KingFish]

... did not observe that kind of behaviour before but I think there's undigested food in Tang poo, something about their digestive system being inefficient.

But it certainly is gutsy, squares off with the Clown Tang and Hippo Tang which are 3-4 times its size, and easily sidestepping their charges

[KingFish]

Huanjie, any update on your Ctenochaetus?