Ctenochaetus flavicauda?

[Maleci]

Does anyone know how these develop? Are they born with the nice red coloration or is that an adult only trait? I had one a while ago that I lost after velvet slipped past 6 weeks of qt and wiped my display that was fully colored at about 4-5 inches and have been looking to replace it. I found some small bristletooths (under 3 inches) that have the distinctive white tail and slight yellow accents that might be juveniles but since they aren't very common not really sure what the development of these is like.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1075769_408453985941387_1448820734_n.jpg

 

[Rea17]

Is that even a bristletooth? The head/mouth shape looks very Acanthurus to me.

The juvenile Ctenochaetus flavicauda is bright yellow according to my research. It looks nothing like the adult, but is definitely a different shape than the picture you attached. I'm not sure what the transformation colors look like. Just my .02

 

[Maleci]

Could be, honestly not the biggest tang person but it looks like a scraping mouth structure to me. Haven't really seen anything like it online or in person ever so figured I'd ask if anyone else had experience or had a clue what it was.

 

[Rea17]

Well I'm not going to pretend to know for sure, but to me it looks like one of the Acanthurus tangs that get big. As juvies they are difficult to differentiate. I find the mouths on bristletooth tangs tend to protrude more and the lips are turned out to accommodate their unique grazing techniques.

 

[Maleci]

Got a response from Bob Fenner at wwm he's iding them as juvenile c. flavicauda so think I just lucked out