Vlamingi Tang

Care at a glance

Overview

This tang is mostly peaceful with tankmates but, like most of its genus, won't tolerate other tangs in the same tank. It's reef safe and won't touch corals or invertebrates. Juveniles feed mainly on algae and should get plenty of nori and marine algae, but adults shift toward more of an omnivore's diet and do well with meaty foods like mysis added into the rotation. Given how large this fish gets, tank size matters more than water chemistry here. It's a hardy tang once established, but it needs room from day one.

In the wild

Vlamingi tangs patrol the upper edges of steep reef drop-offs across the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to the central Pacific, hanging in the water column to pick zooplankton out of the current. Unlike most tangs, they're often seen in loose aggregations at these drop-offs instead of sticking close to the reef itself. This is one of the largest tangs in the hobby, and it needs at least 1,360 litres (360 US gal) with a long, open swimming lane to do well long term.

Good to know

Naso vlamingii is one of the larger unicornfish, and males develop a pronounced bulge on the forehead as they mature, along with the blue scribbling and bright blue lips that give the species its color. It's a broadcast spawner, and researchers have managed rare captive-breeding successes with it, one of only a handful of Naso or Acanthurus species ever reared through to juveniles in captivity.

Did you know

Vlamingi tangs can live for decades and keep growing a couple inches a year for most of that time, so the fish a hobbyist buys as a juvenile can take the better part of a decade to reach its full adult size.

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