Info on tang

[andestang]

Seen a picture of a Dussumieri Tang - great looking fish - anyone ever have one or heard about them. Trying to do homework first and not buy on impulse, not that I've done that before :roll: :wink:
Ande

[Troy F]

Awesome fish, central and south pacific native that grows to almost 16". Zebrasoma desjardanii is the scientific name and it goes by the common name of Red Sea Sailfin as well as desjardani tang. You need a large tank for this one but man are they beautiful.

[Troy F]

Sorry, I'm apparently blind. Ignore my post and I have no info or experience with the dussumieri tang/surgeon :) . You'll have an answer soon though.

Thanks Tony :oops:

[andestang]

16" - wow :shock: , good excuss for third tank ? :D - thanks
Ande

[andestang]

opps - responded to soon :oops: I guess we're even
Ande

[Delphinus]

And not to pick nits, but Z. desjardini is from the Red Sea, whereas its cousin Z. veliferum is found in the South Pacific. They look very similar although there are subtle differences.

8) :P :D

[Troy F]

Your probably right Tony but my reference places them both in the Central and South Pacific. I know that Red Sea in the common name is a bit of a give away. I had a conversation with an LFS owner about this and he mentioned that he received both from the same supplier and same area.

[EmilyB]

Might be of interest to you:

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=113755&highlight=dussumieri#113755

[StirCrazy]

I had the non red sea version and I differ from Tony as I think it is nicer looking that the one he likes :wink: the one I had looked identical to the pics he showed except mine has yellow on the tail for even more color.. mine you i had a checker board on the top fin instead of rings.. but you would never realy see that difference unless you are looking close..

as others have said they get large... mine grew 1" in the few months I had him, they are also very teratorial so be prepared for him to take after any other tang looking type fish..

while they are beautiful I think they can get a little large.. so you must either be prepared for a new tank or do not get to attached to him..

Steve

[andestang]

thanks for the input everyone - glad I did some research first - well you guys anyways :roll: Thats disappointing about the size :? But the search will go on
Ande

[Van down by the river]

Hello,
Not to correct every one but it doesn't seem they read the question.
andestang asked about a Dussumieri Tang (Acanthurus dussumieri), NOT
Zebrasoma desjardinii. I don't mean to be rude or offend, I just think it's important to give correct answers. otherwise time , money, and the life of a fish may be wasted. Thank you Andestang for researching first. So many people buy and only sometimes think later! Well I don't know the size of your tank or any details, so I will generalize.

The Dussumier's Tang-described 1835
10m-130m
also Pencilled Surgeon,Eye stripe Surgeon
Acanthurus dussumieri
Widespread Indo Pacific, Africa to Hawaii, Line islands,Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, (Baensch says absent in central Pacific)

It reaches 50cm (some list 40 cm but most say 50-54cm) so I recommend you only proceed if you are willing to provide a large tank with lots of swimming space. The large surgeons are excellent swimmers and need lots of room to swim. They are a hardy species and generally easy to keep (Mine is in a 400 gallon and seems a bit cramped so I may give him to a friend with a 700). Adult coloration is very nice although the body goes a blue hue instead of the juvenile yellow.

Feeding: In the wild they eat benthic algae,diatoms, blue green algae covering the sand bed. It will also scrape from rocks. In captivity I suggest a diet of Enriched brine shrimp, Nori (seaweed), Caulerpa, Spirulina, Formula two, and live rock or sand with algae growth. Mine seems to do well on a mixture of brine,formula two,nori, and peas.

On the downside, large Acanthurus generally become increasingly agressive as they age. This combined with their tail spine can cause serious damage to other tankmates.
They are also very similiar to Acanthurus bariene,as well as A. blochii, A.xanthopterus

Anyways I hope that helps with your decision. :lol:

[Troy F]

Welcome to the board Van down by the River. If you look up you'll see Tony caught my mistake and I corrected it. You'll notice the threads go off topic occasionally. But thanks to yourself and EmilyB this fellow had his enquiry answered in full. Again, Welcome. Any pics of your tank?

[StirCrazy]

haha, thats what we get for scanning the questions and reading the replies to see what infor has been said LOL.. sorry wrong fish :wink:

Steve

[Delphinus]

I think it gets more interesting when a tangent can take off into something else ... Ok I recognize that sometimes that can get a little annoying when you're trying to dissect through pages and the topic has nothing to do with the content ...

But I had my one little piece of knowledge, however irrelevant, and by golly I was going to share it!! Even if nobody listens ... Hee hee... :lol:

But thanks indeed for the info about the Dussumieri tang. I knew nothing about that tang that's why I didn't say anything about it.

[Van down by the river]

Thank you for the welcome,
It's all good. I guess I should change my name. It's a little long huh?
It's from Chris Farley-SNL Inside joke I guess.

So how many faces will I see on Feb 1st?




"Sometimes a student, Sometimes a teacher"