''Zebrasoma xanthurum'', the purple tang or yellowtail tang, is a species of reef surgeonfish in the family
Acanthuridae
Acanthuridae are the family of surgeonfishes, tangs, and unicornfishes. The family includes about 86 extant species of marine fish living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs. Many of the species are brightly colored and popular in aq ...
. It was first described by zoologist
Edward Blyth
Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta.
Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...
in 1852.
Description
Purple tangs grow to a maximum length of near . Their bodies are purple in color with a yellow tail. The heads of purple tangs are covered with black spots, and black horizontal lines run down the sides of the bodies of some specimens. The center of their bodies are sometimes a darker color of purple relative to the rest of their bodies. On most specimens, the tips of their pectoral fins are yellow.
Like all members of the genus ''
Zebrasoma
''Zebrasoma'' is a genus of surgeonfishes native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They have disc-shaped bodies and sail-like fins.
Species
There are currently seven recognized species in this genus:
* '' Zebrasoma desjardinii'' ( E. T. Bennett ...
'', purple tangs have large dorsal and anal fins and an extended snout that is used to forage for algae within rocks. When the dorsal and anal fins are fully extended, the fish looks like a disk.
As typical of all surgeonfish, purple tangs have a sharp spines on each side of their caudal peduncle, which are used for defense.
Distribution
Purple tangs were originally found in the
Red Sea
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
. They are now found in the
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...
,
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
, the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
and recently (2015) for the first time in the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
near
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
.
[Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea (VZebrasoma xanthurum). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco.https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Zebrasoma_xanthurum.pdf]
Habitat
Purple tangs typically inhabit coral reef ecosystems, where they are found eating filamentous algae in the reef. They have been found at depths ranging from . Adults are typically found swimming in shoals, while juveniles remain solitary.
References
External links
Purple tang(''Zebrasoma xanthurus'')
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q882730
Acanthuridae
Fish described in 1852
Taxa named by Edward Blyth