Red Sea sailfin tang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iRed Sea sailfin tang

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Acanthuridae
Genus: Zebrasoma
Species: Z. desjardinii
Binomial name
Zebrasoma desjardinii
(Bennett, 1836)

The Red Sea sailfin tang or Desjardin's sailfin tang (Zebrasoma desjardinii) is a marine reef tang in the fish family Acanthuridae. They originate in the lagoons and reefs of the Indian Ocean from the southern Red Sea to KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa and as far east as India and Java. They may live at water depths of 2 - 30 m (6.5 - 100 ft) or more. The fish grow to a maximum length of 40 cm (16 in).

Red Sea sailfin tangs natively live in a tropical climate and prefer saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.020 - 1.025, a pH between 8.1 and 8.4 and an ideal temperature range of 22 - 26 C (72 - 78 F).

The fish are pair spawners, a typical trait of other fish in the Zebrasoma genus. This differs from the group spawning typical of the Acanthuridae family. The juvenile fish live in the inner reef areas.

[edit] References

In other languages