Orange Shoulder tang; disease, or natural change?
 

This afternoon I noticed that the face on my orange shoulder tang has darkened, just above the eye. The tang was completely bright yellow on June 12th, 3 days ago. There are no abrasions, the fish hasn't been fighting or having problems with it's mates. So I've come to two possible conclusions; its a disease/illness, or its already starting to change to its adult form. The fish is just a tad bigger then an inch from mouth to tail.

These are the best photos I could snap, and of course the tang would only hang out in the cave once the camera came out. If you look closely you can see the darkening on its face.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2..._frontview.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...r_sideview.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ang_faceon.jpg

Is my fish changing already? Does anyone know what the timeframe is for changes from the juvenile to adult forms? Or can someone direct me somewhere I can find one?

A blurry photo, but the darkening is easier to see.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...er_closeup.jpg

bump

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I don't know much about orange shoulder tangs but I vote for transition. Heres a photo I found of one transitioning

http://www.aquatechonline.net/images...-olivaceus.jpg


You can see on the head how its darkening up some. Neat how it gets its orange "shoulder" first. I would just keep an eye on it. If its due to stress or disease you would see the whole body darkened and the fish might become more lethargic. Just the head makes me think transition.


Then again I could be full of it. :razz:

Maybe try wetwebmedia FAQs?

Cool photo!

I did try WWM with no success. I've also googled as many ways as I can think to get transition photos. For the most part I'm seeing/reading that they start to develop the orange on their shoulder's first like in this photo:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...Shoulder_4.jpg

Right now I am leaning towards transition, but my fish is a fraction bigger then 1" so it worries me. Maybe my fish is just an "early bloomer"?

Thanks for the input!

What are you feeding her and how often?

My tank gets fed once daily, and I feed a huge variety of foods through the week. Nori is available constantly though.

Frozen:
-brine enriched with spirulina
-krill, she/it eats it, but its really for my sixline wrasse who goes crazy for it.
-mysis
-ocean plankton
-blood worms
-rotifers

Pellet/Flake
-Cyclopses
-Spirulina flakes
-New Life Spectrum
-Ocean Nutrition's Formula One

I also dose phyto (t.iso, and nano varieties) for my rather large clam population.

She/it eats really well, readily accepts just about anything, but doesn't really seem to like nori, as she prefers hair algae instead (no complaints!)

Well your fish certainly gets a variety. As long as it is plump and lots of greens which they need to thrive it should be OK and is probably a colour change,

BTW, the orange shoulder tang grows very large very quickly. It is very agressive and is rather drab as an adult. Mine did not eat hair algae.

Wayne

I'm leaning further towards a color change now. Its face is a slight bit darker today.

I'm aware how quickly it will grow, and I actually chose the fish for its adult colors. I wanted something to contrast some of my other livestock choices. I have plans to move the tang to a much larger tank once its a bit bigger, stronger, and more likely to thrive in a larger environment with much stronger currents and flow conditions.

Do you have an orange shoulder tang?

I did have for many years. Bought it as a tiny fish.
I lost all my tangs except one in a move. A driver in front of me stopped suddenly, I braked and the transfer buckets went everywhere.