Tomini tang

Care at a glance

Overview

The Tomini tang is a small, mostly peaceful bristletooth that suits a reef tank. It is a step up from the easiest fish, best with a little experience.

Caring for the Tomini tang

Keep a single Tomini tang in at least 70 gal (265 L), and more room is always welcome. Give it an open lane for swimming and a good spread of live rock to comb for algae film and detritus. Hold the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4.

Offer nori or dried seaweed several times a week, along with small meaty foods. Reef keepers value it for cleaning up the detritus and film algae that other grazers leave behind.

The Tomini tang is territorial toward other tangs, especially other bristletooths. It is easygoing with the rest of the tank once it settles in, and it is safe with corals and invertebrates.

It handles shipping and new-tank stress fairly well for a tang. Marine ich is still a risk with any surgeonfish, so quarantine new arrivals rather than skip the step.

Good to know

The Tomini tang belongs to the bristletooth genus Ctenochaetus, named for its rows of fine, flexible, comb-like teeth. They brush algae off rock rather than scrape it the way coarser-toothed Acanthurus tangs do. It still carries the family's folding scalpel spine at the base of the tail, but it is a smaller and generally less pugnacious fish. Juveniles are tan with yellow, blue and white highlights that darken into a more solid adult pattern with a blue tail.

In the wild

The Tomini tang is native to western Pacific reefs, from Indonesia and the Philippines to Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef. It usually lives on steep drop-offs with dense coral growth, in sheltered inshore water.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Kole tang

  Ctenochaetus strigosus

  7.1 in (18 cm) · 79 gal (300 L)

  7.1 in (18 cm)79 gal (300 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Chevron tang

  Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis

  11 in (28 cm) · 180 gal (680 L)

  11 in (28 cm)180 gal (680 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Scopas tang

  Zebrasoma scopas

  7.9 in (20 cm) · 90 gal (340 L)

  7.9 in (20 cm)90 gal (340 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Yellow tang

  Zebrasoma flavescens

  7.9 in (20 cm) · 100 gal (380 L)

  7.9 in (20 cm)100 gal (380 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Black tang

  Zebrasoma rostratum

  8.3 in (21 cm) · 119 gal (450 L)

  8.3 in (21 cm)119 gal (450 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Powder brown tang

  Acanthurus japonicus

  8.3 in (21 cm) · 129 gal (490 L)

  8.3 in (21 cm)129 gal (490 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)