Question on Yellow Eye Kole Tangs

[Cyzax]

Slowly stocking my tank and this tang is the next on the list. Being color blind, the deep brown(for me) adult Yellow Eye Kole tang is not appealing at all.

However, the blue adult is very appealing and would like to know what determines their adult color? I tried searching the web for a couple weeks, but could not get a definitive answer on what causes it.


Here are some pictures of what I mean:

vs

 

[tcamos]

Honestly it's often a matter of lighting. I have a fully grown kole and if it looks blue or brown really depends on the angle. The stripes are brown and blue alternating so it often looks either. I would say mine looks more brown than blue with the blue being a highlight.

This is one of my favorite fish. It's active, peaceful, and being a bristle mouth tang it is constantly rasping the algae from the glass. Consequently he's nice and fat. It's a fish I highly recommend and the only tang that can be kept in a smaller tank. They don't grow all that large and they spend their time grazing rather than swimming.

Even though it has blue on it I still describe it as a brown fish with yellow eye shadow on.

 

[AZBigJohn]

While I'm not all that familiar with that particular fish, to my eye, the fish that you are displaying as blue looks primarily like it is blue only from lighting (say, actinic).

I would think the lighting the fish is under would have a lot to do with the color spectrum that "displays" if that makes sense.

 

[bambam918]

Yea mine lean more towards the blue side, not as deep as your photo. tcamos funny you say yours is peaceful, thought I was getting a peaceful fish but he is a jerk! If he is not the number one boss in my tank he is 1B hahaha. Love him and a great addition to your tank cyzak.

 

[tcamos]

That's too bad. But of course we know each fish has its own "personality" so you got a grumpy jerk. But then even my purple tang gets along with everyone so maybe it's just my vibe.

 

[bambam918]

hahaha could be

 

[Cyzax]

Thanks for the responses guys. My tank lights definitely has more blues than whites. Reef Culture has had one for about two weeks now and I might just have to pick him up tomorrow.

 

[xanthurum]

I absolutely love mine and in my opinion they get more reddish as they age. The color difference in the pics is clearly lighting. Not a stunning fish visually by any means but the white spots and stripes help along with the yellow around they eyes. They add a great deal to any tank due to their behavior and algae eating with that huge mouth a bristletooth is worth its weight in gold. Mine tried to be the boss in QT when I added the Red Sea Sailfin but surprisingly the sailfin is clearly in charge. Odd especially since I have the smallest sailfin I have ever laid eyes on in my nearly 20 years of saltwater keeping. I will say that there is a very good chance he will become your favorite fish in your tank.

 

[rocsec1]

Make sure it is one of the last fish you add. They can be pretty aggressive. At least mine is.

 

[Cyzax]

I currently have a Naso tang in the tank and I love that fish. Trying to make sure all of the tangs(maybe 3 tangs total) added are on the least aggressive side. The Naso is still kind of hesitant towards me, but is always swimming with my mandarin, so I think another tang could be beneficial for him.

 

[zrogst]

I always recommend Tomini's or Kole's - great personality, workhorse of an algae eater, and not as big or aggressive as many other popular tangs

 

[tcamos]

Tomini is a great choice and actually one I think the OP would like better in terms of color. They are a fish that really does change quite a bit from the juvenile color to the adult color with the adult color being quite pleasant to look at. They are also a bristletooth tang so have similar behavior and feeding habits. I'm glad you brought them up, I hadn't thought of them.

 

[jporter]

I have a chevron tang and they also change drastically color wise between juvenile and adult. While most people think they get ugly when they get their adult coloring, I think they still look quite good. I recently changed to some LED's and their coloring looks even better under the LEDs. They are more bland looking but still display some neat dotted stripes when excited and the lights hit them just right. Talk about a non-stop grazing fish. JP

 

[Cyzax]

I will do some research on the mentioned tangs. Thank you!