Surgeonfishes, tangs and unicornfishes in captivity

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
 
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.
 
There is now a photograph of the Finelined Surgeonfish in the gallery:
full

It's a new record for Christmas Island.

:p

Hix
 
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 )
 
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 ).
 
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
 
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
 
vogelcommando said:
Again a thread about a group of marinefishes, this time a complete family ! The family Acanthuridae - Surgeonfishes, tangs and unicornfishes - contains 82 species and are a well-known and well-represented group in both privat and public aquariums.
I discovered however that searching this family on ZooChat proofed to be quite difficult because:
- many species are represented in the Gallery without scientific name ( yes I also am guilty on this :( ! ).
- many species have more then one ( commonly used ) name.
- many photos in the Gallery are not identified ( or identified wrong / incomplete ).
- many species can have different colors, depending on age and mood.
Therefor I hope again on the help of other ZooChatters for any help and advise to make this list as complete as possible and because only a inventory of European collections is avaible ( Zootierliste ) I hope also that ZooChatters from other regions ( America, Asia and Australia ) can provide more information about the species kept in these areas.

Lets start with the species-list ( will be in several parts because of the size of the family ) :

1) Acanthurus achilles - Achilles tang : Kept at 17 European collections and several photos of this species can be found in the Gallery like this one from Hix : Achilles Tang (Acanthurus achilles) | ZooChat
2) Acanthurus albipectoralis - Whitefin surgeonfish : Didn't found any information about any kept at public collections in Europe and also in the ZooChat-gallery I didn't found any pictures of this species.
3) Acanthurus auranticavus - Orange-socket surgeonfish'Rarely kept species, at the moment only 5 European collections keeping it and in the Gallery I didn't found any photo of it.
4) Acanthurus bahianus - Ocean surgeon. A little more common as the Orange-socket surgeonfish ( just ) and kept at 7 European collections but also from this species I didn't found any photos in the Gallery.
5) Acanthurus bariene - Blackspot surgeonfish, also quite rare ( 6 European collections ) but from this species some photos can be found in the Gallery, like this one made by myself at a dutch fish-shop : Blackspot Surgeonfish | ZooChat .
6) Acanthurus blochii - Ringtail surgeonfish : from this species I didn't found information about captive-keeping but in the Gallery it is represented by a few pictures made in the wild by Hix like this one : Ringtail Surgeonfish (Acanthurus blochii) | ZooChat
7) Acanthurus chirurgus - Doctorfish, a rarely seen species in Europe ( 8 collections ) and only one photo in the Gallery, made by Kakapo in a public aquarium in Franch : Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus) | ZooChat
8) Acanthurus chronixis - Chronixis surgeonfish. A species for which I didn't found any information about captive-keeping and also - sofar - not represented in the Gallery.
9) Acanthurus coeruleus - Atlantic blue tang. Relative common in european zoos with 27 collections keeping it. Also a number of pictures of the species in the Gallery like this one made by ralph at the now closed Aquatopia / Belgium : Atlantic blue tang | ZooChat
10) Acanthurus dussumieri - Eyestripe surgeonfish. Kept at 15 collections in Europe and also a number of pictures can be found in the Gallery like this one, made by myself at the now closed Aquatopia / Belgium : Eyestripe surgeonfish | ZooChat
11) Acanthurus fowleri - Fowler's surgeonfish. A rarely-kept species and at the moment only to be found in 3 European collections. In the Gallery I wasn't able to find a single photo of the species.
12) Acanthurus gahlm - Black surgeonfish. As far as I could find-out, never been kept in European public collections and also no photos of it in the Gallery.

To be continued...
Click to expand...
I've uploaded a clearer picture of the Doctorfish Tang:

https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/doctorfish-tang-acanthurus-chirurgus.429625/
 
vogelcommando said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
vogelcommando said:
72) Prionurus maculatus - Yellowspotted sawtail. From this species no information about it being kept at European collections and also not able to find any photos in the Gallery.
Click to expand...

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
 
vogelcommando said:
Just discovered that there is even a second photo of the (Yellow)spotted sawtail in our Gallery made by @WhistlingKite24 : Spotted Sawtail (Prionurus maculatus) - December 2018 - ZooChat .
In # 53 @WhistlingKite24 also mention that a related species - Prionurus microlepidotus - is kept in private hands but in our Gallery this species is still un-represented so if any Australian ZooChatter comes alone one... please take some photos and upload them in our Gallery ;) !
Click to expand...

Edit: oops I made a false statement
 
vogelcommando said:
In # 53 @WhistlingKite24 also mention that a related species - Prionurus microlepidotus - is kept in private hands but in our Gallery this species is still un-represented so if any Australian ZooChatter comes alone one... please take some photos and upload them in our Gallery ;) !
Click to expand...
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
 
vogelcommando said:
@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 !
Click to expand...
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
 
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