Do you know how cool a particular fish has to be for LiveAquaria’s own Director Kevin Kohen to get in front of the camera to tell us all about it? It’s got to be something at least as cool as a wildly aberrant yellow tang from Hawaii.
Aberrant reef fish are much rarer from Hawaii than they are from Indonesia, and usually it involves a white yellow tang like Casper, or more unusually that recent black & white moorish idol from Kona. But this black striped yellow tang is a new aberration for our records, and this fish has the potential to be one exciting show pet fish for some lucky person’s reef tank.
To be clear, this is not one of the numerous Koi scopas tangs from Java Indonesia which have the ability to change color quite dramatically. Quite the contrary, the aberrantly colored yellow tangs from Hawaii usually hold their color, and whoever gets this little gem is going to be in for quite a treat.
The black markings make a neat stripe across one entire side of the fish, and on the other side they break up into two stripes across the dorsal and anal fins. These are the promising kind of traits we might expect from a future lineage of domesticated captive bred yellow tangs, but for now, since we have to rely on the flukes of wild caught fish this specimen is going to be one of a kind for a long time to come.
This cool fish will be for sale in LiveAquaria’s Diver’s Den in the coming weeks, and we can’t wait to see the full pictures of this little guy after his wysiwyg photos are posted and shared.
