Blue Yelllow Eye Kole Tang

[phar]

I was at a fellow reefers house and he had a blue Yellow Eye Kole Tang. It was a beautiful fish. I had never seen a blue one before. I did a little research on liveaquaria.com and it said as these fish mature they can turn blue to burgandy depending on what part of the world they are caught. The website doesn't specify where the blue ones are caught. Does anyone know where these Blue Yellow Eye's are found?
Thanks.

 

[Reef264]

I would also like to know more about these Kole Tangs, I have only seen 1 myself...

 

[Reefing Newbie]

The blue eye kole tangs are different fish entirely from the yellow eye kole tangs. They get slightly bigger than the yellow eyed koles do but are virtually the same. Ctenochaetus binotatus is the blue eyed species. They come from Fiji and Vanuatu at least from LA. Hope that helps.

 

[Reef264]

Thank you sir.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Are we talking about a bluish variant of the yellow eye kole (Ctenochaetus strigosus) or the blue eyed kole (Ctenochaetus binotatus). I've kept both species and other than coloration they are nearly identical. If there is any yellow around the eye it is the strigosus and if the eye is blue and there are two dark spots near the tail on the dorsal and anal fins it is the binotatus.

Both species are most common in and around the south pacific islands of the Phillipines, Indonesia, Australia, and Coral Sea.