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Coral Reef Fish - Surgeonfishes
Surgeonfishes belong to the family Acanthuridae, Subfamily Acanthurinae. They are distinguished by a single pair of retractable scalpel-like blades that fold into the groove at the base of the tail. The white spot on the yellow tang is the scalpel. The blue tang is very common and has a white or yellow spine on the base of the tail. However, the juvenile blue tang is bright yellow but with the fins outlined in bright blue. The picture below shows a juvenile beginning to turn blue. The yellow tang is completely yellow although it is often confused with the blue tang. Also, the doctorfish is distinguished from the surgeonfish by it's body bars, although they can be very faint.
Atlantic/Caribbean
 Ocean surgeonfish Acanthurus bahianus |
 Ocean surgeonfish Acanthurus bahianus |
 Doctorfish Acanthurus chirurgus |
 Blue tang (late juvenile) Acanthurus coeruleus |
 Blue tang (adult) Acanthurus coeruleus |
Indo-Pacific
 Convict tang (aka convict surgeonfish) Acanthurus triostegus |
 Powder-blue surgonefish Acanthurus leucosternon |
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 Orange band surgeonfish Acanthurus olivaceus |
 Spotted unicornfish Naso brevirostris |
 Orangespine unicornfish Naso lituratus |
 Mimic surgeonfish Acanthurus pyroferus |
 Pallet surgeonfish (aka blue tang, blue max tang, pacific blue tang) Paracanthurus hepatus |
 Desjardin's sailfin tang Zebrasoma desjardinii |
 Desjardin's sailfin tang Zebrasoma desjardinii |
 Sailfin tang Zebrasoma veliferum |
 Yellow tang Zebrasoma flavescens |
Note: Most of these photos were taken at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, South Carolina Aquarium in Charelston, Key West Aquarium, and Pennekamp State Park Aquarium in Florida. Feel free to use these photographs on any of your government, citizen or not-for-profit Web sites. I only ask that you credit this Web site page and acknowledge the name of the photographer in the alt tag. Please email us if you need higher resolution photos or permissions for other purposes. Learn more about fish as environmental indicators and coral reefs.