Mimic Tangs--color

[ilikefish34]

I was at a LFS the other day and overheard a discussion where the salesperson was telling a customer one of thing he liked about the Mimics is that you didn't know what they would turn into; there were three individuals that were all yellow and all were 2.5-3" long.

It was my previous understanding that they start off in their Mimic form and then wash out over time (once they've passed the size of the small angels they mimic). Regardless, I thought these were already mimicking Yellow Angels based on their size and wouldn't turn into something else.

1. Do all mimics start off the same before an initial turn?
2. Do they have a predetermined form based on what angel they will eventually mimic?
3. Something else?

Just curious. Thanks

 

[ca1ore]

Only had one mimic, Eibli, and it lost mimicry as it grew.

 

[A sea K]

There are two forms that I know of, A pyroferus (yellow mimic) and A tristus (eibli mimic) they have obvious differences as juveniles and more subtle differences as an adult. I personally prefer the A pyroferus and kept one for several years till I lost him in a crash. I had that fish for at least 5 years and never saw him transistion to the adult color form.

 

[Moort82]

As far as I'm aware the angel they mimic is the first stage before a colour change into adult and that mimic stage is one particular angel. So even though you see pyroferus mimicking vroloki, lemonpeel/heralds they only exhibit bates Ian mimicry of one angel during their lifetime with tristis mimicking eibli angels. I suppose if you are kind you could suggest they meant the adult colours which you can't be sure of as there seems quite a variance but they won't wake up one morning to say a lemonpeel one day and a vroloki the next.

 

[scooter31707]

IME, I have had 2 mimics, one being a Yellow Mimic and the other a Chocolate Mimic, both A pyroferus. Now as they reached the 6-7 inch mark, the Yellow Mimic took on more of a grayish color within the body and very bright yellow on the edge of the fins and the Chocolate of course took on more of a dark chocolate color with bright yellow on the edge of the fins. Same fish, but I think maybe slight difference in coloration base on their collection point. Yellow Mimic as a juvenile mimic the Yellow Herald Dwarf Angel and the Chocolate Mimic had the blue marks by his eyes like a Lemonpeel Dwarf.

 

[cougareyes]

The mimic tang I am most familiar with is A pyroferus, which is a chocolate tang in it's adult form. As a juvenile it will mimic the angel fish which is in the region it lives. There are 3 forms, the lemonpeel mimic which mimics the lemonpeel angel; the yellow mimic which mimics the heraldi angel, and the half black mimic which mimics the half black angel. As with all species when they turn to adults they have their own individual color variations. They all become chocolate tangs and as far as I know in their adult form you can't really tell which juvenile form they were in. As with most tangs their change is based on a few factors. Once in an aquarium they can start changing to their adult coloration almost immediately, as small as 3-4". There are at least 2 other forms I am not so familiar with.