Red Sea sailfin tang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Red Sea sailfin tang |
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The Red Sea sailfin tang is a cool marine fish also known as Desjardin's sailfin tang or Indian sailfin surgeonfish. It's a type of ray-finned fish that belongs to the family called Acanthuridae. This family includes surgeonfishes, unicornfishes, and tangs. You can find this colorful fish swimming in the Indian Ocean.
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About Its Name
This fish was first officially described in 1836 by an English zoologist named Edward Turner Bennett. He first called it Acanthurus desjardinii. The name desjardinii honors a French zoologist named Julien Desjardins. He lived in Mauritius for many years and gave a collection of fish, including this one, to the British Museum of Natural History.
What Does It Look Like?
The Red Sea sailfin tang has a tall fin on its back, called a dorsal fin. This fin has 4 strong spines and between 27 and 31 soft rays. Its anal fin (on its belly) has 2 spines and 22 to 24 soft rays. This fish has a deep body, meaning it's quite tall from top to bottom. It can grow up to 40 cm long.
Its mouth sticks out a bit, and its snout has a curved shape. The tail fin is flat at the end. The body of the fish is grey with about 8 dark grey stripes going up and down. Inside each dark stripe, you'll see 2 or 3 orange or yellow lines. These lines break into spots near the bottom of its body and on its anal fin.
On its head, there are two dark brown stripes. One of them goes right through its eye. The head and body are covered in many small, light yellow spots. You can also see similar spots arranged in bands on its dorsal fin. The tail fin has light blue spots. Young Red Sea sailfin tangs look a bit different. They have thin grey and yellow stripes on their bodies and two black stripes on their heads.
Where Does It Live?
The Red Sea sailfin tang lives in the Indian Ocean. You can find it along the eastern coast of Africa, as far south as Sodwana Bay in South Africa. It also lives in the Middle East, near countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
This fish is also found around many islands in the Indian Ocean. These include Sri Lanka, islands in the Andaman Sea, Sumatra, Java, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island. In 1999, a pair of these fish were seen in the Atlantic Ocean near Florida. However, scientists believe they were probably released from someone's aquarium.
These tangs usually live in lagoon and seaward reefs. They are found at depths between 1 and 30 meters. Younger fish, called juveniles, prefer more protected areas within the reefs.
How Does It Behave?
Adult Red Sea sailfin tangs usually swim around in pairs. Young tangs, however, prefer to be alone. They mostly eat stringy algae, larger seaweeds, and tiny floating organisms called plankton.
Interestingly, tangs in the Red Sea have been seen eating jellyfish and comb jellies too! Sometimes, these fish gather in groups to feed on algae. If they do this in an area where a slingjaw wrasse (a type of predatory fish) lives, the wrasse might change its color to match the tangs. The wrasse then joins the group and pretends to eat algae while it's actually hunting other prey.
Red Sea sailfin tangs usually lay their eggs in pairs. This is common for fish in their group, even though other fish in the larger surgeonfish family often lay eggs in bigger groups.
Keeping Them as Pets
The Red Sea sailfin tang is a popular fish for aquariums. People enjoy keeping them because of their unique looks and interesting behavior.
