Sailfin Tang – Zebrasoma Veliferum

The Sailfin Tang, also known as Pacific Sailfin Tang, features alternative brown, white, and yellow vertical striping across the body, fading into speckled patterns on the anal and dorsal fins. Their most dramatic feature is their huge sail shaped dorsal and anal fins. The Pacific salfin tang is often confused with thedesjardini or Indian ocean sailfin due to their very similar appearance. The easiest way to differentiate the two is to look at the tailfin. The more common Pacific sailfin tang will will usually have a solid colored tail while the desjardini has a speckled tail.

Care

Sailfin tangs are a very large species, growing up to 16″. As such, they require an aquarium of 180gallons or larger with plenty of open space for swimming, and rock for grazing. Like most tangs, they’re considered moderately difficult to care for, semi-aggressive, and reef safe, with their only special consideration being sheer size.

Diet

Sailfin tangs, like most tangs, will thrive on a diet of frozen and prepared foods, but should also be supplied with plenty of rock for algae grazing as well as supplemental nori algae sheets.