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Surgeonfishes, tangs and unicornfishes in captivity

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by vogelcommando, 13 Mar 2017.

  1. Hix

    Hix Wildlife Enthusiast and Lover of Islands 15+ year member Premium Member

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    If you're interested in historical data of Australian aquaria I can tell you, based on my photographs, SeaWorld had in June 2010:

    Eyestripe Surgeonfish
    Mimic Surgeonfish
    Orangeband Surgeonfish
    Whitecheek Surgeonfish
    Bluespined Unicornfish
    Orangespine Unicornfish
    Whitemargin Unicornfish
    Brushtail Tang
    Pallette Tang (aka Blue Tang)
    Sailfin Tang

    A graphic also lists Convict Surgeonfish and Spotted Unicornfish, but I don't have any photos of them.


    And I have photographed at Sydney Aquarium:
    Bluespine Unicornfish, Palette Tang and Sailfin Tang in 2011;
    Bignose Unicornfish, Orangeband Surgeonfish, Orangespine Unicornfish, Palette Tang, Powderblue Surgeonfish, Yellow Tang and Yellowfin Surgeonfish in 2009.
    They also had a label for the Japanese Surgeonfish, Convict Surgeonfish, Spotted Unicornfish, and the Brown Surgeonfish in 2009 but I don't have photo records of them.

    At Oceanworld (aka Manly Marineland) I have a photograph of a Palette Tang from 2009.

    The National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra also had Palette Tang, and Orangeband Surgeonfish in 2007; and Powderblue Surgeonfish in 2009.

    Melbourne Aquarium in 2010 had Bulbnosed Unicornfish, juvenile Orangeband Surgeonfish, Orangespine Unicornfish and Sailfin Tang.

    :p

    Hix
     
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  2. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Thank you very much for this list Hix ! Hope also other ZooChatters will place their lists of species seen at ( Australian, American, Asian ) Aquariums and zoos so we can get a better picture of species kept.
     
  3. Hix

    Hix Wildlife Enthusiast and Lover of Islands 15+ year member Premium Member

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    There is now a photograph of the Finelined Surgeonfish in the gallery:
    [​IMG]
    It's a new record for Christmas Island.

    :p

    Hix
     
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  4. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Nice picture, thanks Hix !
     
  5. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  6. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Video of the captive sprawing, eggs and pro larva of the Regal tang :

     
  7. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Today I visited for the first time Zee-aquarium Bergen aan Zee - the Netherlands and found it a very nice collection. Special attention was of course paid to the Surgeon / unicornfish / tang collection and I found 5 species being kept at this collection :
    - Bluespine unicornfish - Naso unicornis ( see Bluespine unicornfish - Naso unicornis | ZooChat )
    - Bignose unicornfish - Naso vlamingii ( see Bignose unicornfish - Naso vlamingii | ZooChat )
    - Palette tang - Paracanthurus hepatus ( see Palette tang - Paracanthurus hepatus | ZooChat )
    - Sohal surgeonfish - Acanthurus sohal ( see Sohal surgeonfish - Acanthurus sohal | ZooChat )
    - Yellow tang - Zebrasoma flavescens ( see Yellow tang - Zebrasoma flavescens | ZooChat )
     
  8. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Today I visited ( again :) ) my local fishstore and found 2 specimens of a very rare species, the Spotted tang ( aka Jewelled tang and Gem surgeonfish - Zebrasoma gemmatum ).
    At the moment its only kept at one public collection in Europe ( Zoo Duisburg ) and there I made the only photo sofar in the Gallery but its of a very poor quality ( see Zebrasoma gemmatum | ZooChat ) .
    Therefor I'm very glad that I now have uploaded 2 much better photos of the species which I made today ( see Spotted tang - Zebrasoma gemmatum - closed fins | ZooChat and Spotted tang - Zebrasoma gemmatum - with open fins | ZooChat ).
     
  9. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Surgeonfishes at Ouwehands - Netherlands

    Last weekend I visited Ouwehands and found a nice collection of Surgeonfishes at their Aquarium. The 6 species seen were :
    - Yellow tang - Zebrasoma flavescens - several specimens at 2 different aquariums
    - Yellow-tailed tang - Zebrasoma xanthurum - one specimen seen
    - Desjardin's sailfin tang - Zebrasoma desjardini - small group in one aquarium
    - Achilles tang - Acanthurus achilles - one specimen seen
    - Sohal surgeonfish - Acanthurus sohal - one seen
    - Palette surgeonfish - Paracanthurus hepatus
     
  10. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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  11. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    A visit to my local fish-shop made it possible to make a lot of photos of several Surgeonfishes, Tangs and Unicornfishes and with the help of @Great Argus I now discovered that at least 2 of them belong to species not in the Gallery sofar. So now we can add :
    - Acanthurus chronixius :
    IMG_0109 surgeonfish ID.jpg

    and Acanthurus fowleri ( also a lifer for me :) ! ) :

    IMG_0091 surgeonfish id.jpg
     
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  12. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I've uploaded a clearer picture of the Doctorfish Tang:

    https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/doctorfish-tang-acanthurus-chirurgus.429625/
     
  13. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    I thought I’d contribute towards this wonderful thread with some of the species I’ve seen in Australia.

    SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast- September 2018
    -Pacific Blue Tang Paracanthus hepatus
    -Whitemargin Unicornfish Naso annulatus
    -Orange-spine Unicornfish Naso literatus
    -Epaulette Surgeonfish Acanthurus nigricauda
    -Whitecheek Surgeonfish Acanthurus nigricans
    -Orange-blotched Surgeonfish Acanthurus olivaceus
    -Chocolate Surgeonfish Acanthurus pyroferus
    -Yellow Tang Zebrasoma flavescens

    SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium- December 2018
    -Pacific Blue Tang Paracanthus hepatus
    -Spotted Unicornfish Naso brevirostris
    -Yellowfin Surgeonfish Acanthurus xanthopterus
    -Purple Tang Zebrasoma xanthurum
    -Yellow Tang Zebrasoma flavescens
    -Sailfin Tang Zebrasoma veliferum
    -Brush-tail Tang Zebrasoma scopas

    Also, for interest’s sake here are the species that I’ve seen in private hands in Australia (fish shows, pet trade etc);
    -Pacific Blue Tang Paracanthus hepatus
    -Orange-spine Unicornfish Naso literatus
    -Blue-spined Unicornfish Naso unicornus
    -Sawtail Surgeonfish Prionurus microlepidotus
    -Powder Blue Tang Acanthurus leucosternon
    -Yellow Tang Zebrasoma flavescens
    -Sailfin Tang Zebrasoma veliferum
    -Brush-tail Tang Zebrasoma scopas

    If there are any additional species of this group, I will add them to this thread. I hope this helps in gaining a better picture of the species present in Australia.
     
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  14. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Just uploaded the first photo of a Fowler's surgeonfish - Acanthurus fowleri made in a public collection - Hagenbeck's Tierpark Germany. The other 2 photo's already in our Gallery were made at a fish-shop.
    ( see Fowler's surgeonfish - Acanthurus fowleri - ZooChat )
     
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  15. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    By searching some photos for another thread ( Butterflyfishes of the genus Chaetodon ) I came along a picture of a sawtail-species kept at the SEALIFE Melbourne Aquarium which was still not represented in our Gallery :
    the Yellowspotted sawtail - Prionurus maculatus. The photo was made by @Yoshistar888 and can be found here : Fish ID? - ZooChat
     
  16. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  17. Yoshistar888

    Yoshistar888 Well-Known Member

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    Edit: oops I made a false statement
     
  18. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    A photo of said fish has been in the gallery for almost two years! :p Admittedly the photo isn’t clearly labelled and isn’t easy to find. The larger fish in this photo was identified as Prionurus microlepidotus by ZooChat members. I later confirmed the species with the fish show the following year.

    Fish ID?- Royal Queensland Show - ZooChat
     
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  19. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    @WhistlingKite24 : Thank you very much for this ( and the nice photo ! ) so the number of un-represented surgeon- tang and unicornfish-species in our Gallery is getting smaller and smaller !
    Keep on doing a great job !
     
  20. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    They are an incredibly diverse group of species aren't they.:) I will keep a look out for new species. Here is another species that doesn't seem to be represented - Whitefin Surgeonfish (Acanthurus albipectoralis) which is kept at SeaWorld Gold Coast, Australia.

    Fish ID? - ZooChat