Low Fin Yellow Tang

[Corax]

Anyone have Burgess' Marine Atlas? This fish is dicussed in there and I could REALLY use either a scan or a quote of what it says concerning it... This is what I had and took to my LFS... They now tell me they can't sell him cuz everyone thinks he is deformed =\ Idiots...

[Boogiechillin]

Got a species name? Not familiar with that common name myself. Is it Acanthurus pyroferus?

[Corax]

That's the problem, no SN fo it... The friend that gave me this odd tang told me it was a "chinese low fin", however you know how trade names go... He said it was listed in the atlas but he doesn't have a copy of it anymore... And nope, Acanthurus pyroferus looks nothing like what I'm describing... It is as yellow as a yellow tang could ever be =)

[Boogiechillin]

Make sure you're looking at the juvenile coloration - lots of tangs are solid, bright yellow as juvies and then mature into different colored adults. All of these are nearly solid yellow when small:
A. pyoferus (see p 379 of Marine Fishes)
A. olivaceus (p 378 of MF)
A. coeruleus (p 303 of CMA)

[Corax]

This tang was purchased as an adult size 9 years ago =) I contacted the place he got it from and they told me that it sounds to them like it has suffered severe HLLE in the past and has never regenerated properly... I've never read nor seen where HLLE can modify the shape of the dorsal fin though... There is some evidence of past HLLE, so that could be it...

[Boogiechillin]

Does the body shape otherwise look like a Zebrasoma spp tang, or is the body more elongated like a Acanthurus or Naso spp? No bristletooth mouth part like a Ctenochaetus spp, right? If we could at least narrow it down to the genus, that would help things a lot...I'm curious to find out what the hell this is now. :D

[Corax]

Not being a major tang fan, I can't keep up with you on the SNs, but for all intents an purposes, it is a yellow tang... First, imagine the yellow tang with no dorsal or pectoral fins at all... Now, imagine the pectoral fin elongated downwards and rounded... The dorsal is sort of a mohawk kinda effect, with perfectly formed terminations that SHOULD extend up and form a nice sail-fin...

Nice to see I'm not the only one burning to find out what exactly this critter is =)

[Boogiechillin]

Ok, does it look like this tang?

[Boogiechillin]

...or, more like this tang?

[Corax]

nope... Maybe this will help =) (sorry, had to hunt old pics on my CDs... I keep everything, I just can't always find it at first hehehe)

[quantim0]

dude, i think your fish is broken. :( i think that fish had some serious dietary defficiencies somewhere previously in his life. i think a vitamin C deficiency causes those deformities in fish to develop. i've seen a few cases that like and they all on tangs, a lot of hippo tangs. there's nothing you can really do at this point except make sure that he's eating properly to aviod any further problems. also it looks like he was beat up at the same time and was so damaged that he's not able to regrow his fins.

[Boogiechillin]

Agreed. Definitely a run-of-the-mill yellow tang that just took a lot of abuse. Never thought I'd ever write this, but the LFS is correct on this one. :cool:

[Corax]

Well that stinks, poor guy =( He looked like that when my buddy bought him 9 years ago... Ohwell, least I can tell my LFS the true story now...

[Dale W.]

I would have to agree on the Yellow tang being deformed in a way. I have seen plenty of yellows look like this but usually all the fins are short. They never really do re generate either.