Casper the world-famous all-white yellow tang is quickly becoming the best documented specimen of a surgeonfish in aquariums, or in the wild. From humble beginnings in mid-2010, the little blanched Zebrasoma flavescens first gained notoriety as one of the crowning animals in World Wide Corals‘ reef aquarium gallery of a fish store.
Over the years we’ve thoroughly chronicled Casper as he’s grown, but now, nearing his five year aquarium anniversary, Casper’s decided to radically change his look. It is not uncommon for some of the very few solid white, yellow tangs to show a variability in the degree of yellow present on their body.
Casper himself has sometimes thrown out some small yellow patched which mostly managed to remain temporary. However, Casper’s new look has been a few months in the making and even though he is not the same angelic surgeonfish he once was, he is definitely sporting some very striking attire indeed.
There’s no way to know whether Casper’s colors will go back to the fully desaturated state that made him famous, whether he’ll turn completely yellow, or if his current pattern is here to stay. The most likely scenario is that his colors will continue to shift throughout his life in unpredictable ways but one thing is for sure, we’ll be there to visit Casper on an annual basis to let you know how this fishy celebrity is doing.
