Atlantic Blue Tang color change

[El Langostino]

Good evening all,

I was considering adding an Acanthurus coeruleus to my 90 gallon reef and was just wondering if the coloration change with this particular fish is size-dependent. Would a 2-3 inch specimen normally be all yellow or would it potentially already have a dark blue body with still a yellow tail?

Thanks so much,
David

 

[Reeftanks6]

2-3 inch Atlantic Blue Tang would usually still have there juv color maybe around 5-6 in they would change.

 

[El Langostino]

Thanks for the reply. I figured as much I guess, but I seem to have seen myriad pictures of very small specimens already displaying a sort of light-blue, body color, with a yellow tail.

thanks again

 

[philter4]

Thats noy entirely true, I've collected 2 1/2 inch juv's that were blue with a yellow tail. I've also put small solid yellow ones in a tank and had them begin to change color within a month or so. I believe the color change is dominance related and as soon as they are dominant enough they begin to change their colors to blue.

 

[El Langostino]

Very Cool. I'm strongly considering purchasing one online this week. Do you have any personal experience in keeping this fish? It seems oft neglected to be even considered in home reef tanks. I've always wondered why, as it is a very handsome fish that thrives in our very own backyard, so to say.

 

[El Langostino]

Well, obviously you have personal experience in keeping this fish, as your post states, lol. My bad for the irrelevant question there. Could you tell me a little more about this fish?

thanks a lot,
David

 

[philter4]

The reason I don't like them is they become very agressive in my tanks. Not sure why, but after they become established they do not like any other fish to be added. I prefer smaller fish, and maybe they would be ok if you added larger individuals, but I've had them go after new arrivals so badly that I had to remove them from the display. Another possible reason they don't show up that much is that they are hard to collect. They don't hide so you have to put up a barrier net and as juv they don't school. What this means is they take a lot of effort to collect and you only get one. I used to collect for a living way back when, and they weren't worth the few $$$ you could get for them. I have collected them for myself, but not worth selling.

As far as keeping them I have never had trouble, I have kept them in Fish Only and reef displays, they do get big, over a foot so you need a big tank for an adult. The ones I kept were fed the same foods as all my other fish, frozen and dried. for frozen I use mini mysis, enriched brine with spirolina, cyclops, and the refrigerated arctipods. For dried foods they were given spectra pellets and a vegitable flake. Water was natural sea water, but I'm sure any good salt mix would be fine. I don't heat my tanks, but I do use a chiller in the summer to keep the tanks in the mid to high 70's. I like deep water fish and I go to HI and have a bandit angel that likes it a little cooler so that range seems to work for me. I can't collect corals so I only have a few that were given to me, but the tang never bothered my zoo's or soft corals that I kept it with. I also love shrimp and have never had it bother any of my shrimp which have included cleaners, harliquins, sexy and anemone shrimp.

If you get a juv the color change is not that exciting, the fish starts out bright yellow, then the yellow dulls to almost a brown. The brown then begins to change to the blue you see in adults. There is a time when the fish is the bright blue like an adult but still has a yellow tail making it look a lot like a red sea purple tang and this phase is the prettiest IMO. Finally the tail turns to blue and you have an adult colored animal.

If you can deal with the territorial nature they are nice hardy animals that do well.

 

[Untamed12]

I have one and it has undergone an interesting colour change. When I got it, it had blueish body with yellow tail. Since then, it has changed to almost completely yellow. It is like his colour change is going backwards.

So far, it is a very peaceful fish, but it was the last one in the tank. It was given a very rough time by my A. achilles. They get along fine now. The A. coeruleus is smaller.

Eats everything. Pellets, frozen shrimp, frozen squid, frozen clam, and Nori.

When I first got him...

And more recently...

 

[Reeftanks6]

Man thats really weird but really cool looking Untamed. Never seen that in my life before. But it is really nice looking fish.

 

[chrisstie]

Wow. The one I have is still a juvenile but looks more like the first pic above.

I got mine at around 3" a few months ago now hes at 4" and starting to get more blue. I have him in my 55g to get rid of a caulerpa (ever see the banner on top of RC about the stuff that they spent millions to get rid of in california? that stuff got in my tank somehow!) and he has a spot lined up in my friends 375g when he's done with his contract with me.

Beautiful fish. Mine I wouldn't call aggressive but he's in with a slightly larger latz clownfish so he kind of goes with the flow. A very aggressive eater, though but my clown steals his nori and shoves it in her anemone so it makes for an entertaining feeding time.

If I had a larger tank I would totally keep him full time but he is quite a eat/poop machine and will get big fast so to my friends house he'll go.

 

[El Langostino]

Wow, what an absolutely stunningly beautiful fish!

 

[El Langostino]

Well, my Atlantic Blue Tang came in looking great. With a pretty dark blue body and a yellow tail. Unfortunately, my Tomini Tang; which is all of 3 inches mind you, just absolutely destroyed the ABT. 90 gallon tank, that's the only tang in there, and still this fish is so aggressive that it didn't matter. The Tomini is the smallest tang available to hobbyists, but it's demeanor really rivals that of an Acanthurus lineatus even, with far less enjoyable colors as well. I think I'm going to remove my Tomini.

l8tr all,
David