Florida-based aquaculture facility Surge Marine Life has announced that they have successfully bred and raised Zebrasoma spp. tangs, the result of which is a batch of hybrids of unknown parentage. The family-owned and operated company teased some shots of captive-raised juveniles recently, which to the untrained eye were healthy, clearly captive-raised, but still quite plain. Yesterday however they released new shots of them as young adults, complete with purple tint, yellowish tails, yet striated patterns on top. They had developed into beautiful young adults, and the saltwater fish community wanted to know more:
“We’re so proud to announce our first accomplishment as Surge Marine Life is a hybrid Zebrasoma tang!” Surge Marine Life announced on Facebook. “Which species you ask? Well, we’re actually still asking the same question ourselves. What we have here is an unconfirmed hybrid of two out of three possible species: Purple Tang, Zebrasoma xanthurum, Gem Tang, Zebrasoma gemmatum, and Scopas Tang, Zebrasoma scopas. We’re currently working toward getting a positive identification through DNA analysis, but in the meantime, we wanted to be able to offer these to the market and share them with the world. What do you think we have?”
What we think
Reef Builders is the home of aberrant and hybrid surgeonfish so we went back through the archives. Most recently we covered the Yurple Tang, a hybrid between the Yellow tang, Zebrasoma flavescens and the Purple tang, Zebrasoma xanthurum. But no Yellow tang confirmed in the possible parentage threesome.
Next we looked at two natural Gem/Scopas hybrids caught in the wild, one from Mauritius and one from Madagascar. Again no match there. And then we looked to Anubis, the beautiful Purple/Scopas one off hybrid bred in 2020 by Bali Aquarich. Anubis is probably the most beautiful Zebrasoma hybrid created to date, but no clear match there either. And finally we checked in on when Bali Aquaruch captive bred pure Purple tangs, to refamiliarise ourselves with what the juveniles look like, their colors, and patterns. So which is it?
Purple/Gem hybrid
Purple/Scopas hybrid
Gem/Scopas hybrid
So if we had to guess, our guess would be Purple/Gem tang hybrid. Pictures released of the very beautiful crosses reveal a lot of purple coloration on the body, dorsal and anal fins, and yellow in the tail. Pictures of pure Purple Tang juveniles also reveal a scattering of white dots and short stripes all over the body. So we are set on one parent being a Purple tang, Zebrasoma xanthurum.
Gem tangs have yellow tails too, and their patterning can vary from white spots to short stripes depending on age and location, so for now, we’re going with Purple/Gem hybrid, which if we’re right, makes these fish pretty valuable too, versus a lower value standard Scopas parent. But if we hadn’t been told any of the three parents, based on the images of the juveniles, our guess would actually have been Purple/Red Sea Sailfin tang, Zebrasoma xanthurum/desjardinii!
Either way this is a great breeding triumph for Surge Marine Life and should be recognized as such. They are another company that has the capability to breed and raise Zebrasoma species tangs at a land-based facility on US soil. And that’s going to be great for everyone.
These hybrids are also very beautiful, more beautiful perhaps than a Yurple Tang, and that makes them highly desirable. And they haven’t just got one, they’ve got five that we can see in the pictures, and they’re all looking fin perfect with good body shape and no head and lateral line erosion. Once parentage is confirmed these fish will need a name: Gurple? Scurple? Gopas? You read it here first…
Price
The launch price of these very exclusive fish will prove a barrier to many, at $10,000 each! But just like the Yurple, we can still see these arriving in select stores around the world and of course, in the private collections of the world’s largest and most extravagant reef tanks.
More at https://surgemarinelife.com/
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