Convict Tang

Care at a glance

Overview

One of the calmest tangs available and unusual in that it genuinely does better with company: a group introduced together will shoal peacefully, while a lone fish added to a tank with other surgeonfish is more likely to be bullied than to start trouble itself. Reef safe with corals and invertebrates. Feed it nori and dried seaweed often, since its diet in the wild is almost entirely filamentous algae, with meaty frozen food offered as a supplement rather than a staple. It is still a tang and can pick up marine ich under stress, so quarantine new arrivals rather than assume its mild temperament makes it any hardier than the rest of the family.

In the wild

One of the most widely distributed reef fish in the world, found from East Africa across the Indo-Pacific to Central America. Juveniles crowd shallow tide pools and reef flats before adults move out to lagoons and seaward reefs down to 90 m. It is an active swimmer that does best with a long, open lane for cruising plus mature live rock to graze; a single fish needs at least 470 litres (125 US gal), and a proper school needs considerably more room.

Good to know

Carries the same folding tail spine as other surgeonfish but is far less inclined to use it than most of its relatives. Named for the five to six vertical black bars across its silvery-white body, it reaches about 27 cm, though most individuals seen on the reef are closer to 17 cm. In the wild it forms large feeding schools that can overwhelm territorial damselfish by sheer numbers, a strategy that also spreads out the risk from any one predator.

Did you know

Hawaiians call it manini, and the word has drifted into local slang to mean stingy or insignificant, since a modest-sized manini was considered a meager catch next to bigger reef fish.

Related species

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