powder browns

[Starry]

Anyone own one of these beauties? Thinking of ordering either this or a kole. Any thoughts?

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by Starry

Anyone own one of these beauties? Thinking of ordering either this or a kole. Any thoughts?

They are both beautiful fishes. I just got my powder brown tang and already love him very much
________
Universal health warehouse

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Both types of Powder Browns (A. nigricans and A. japonicus) are ick-magnets. My PB (A.japonicus) is a beautiful fish. Had it for 2 years now. Still gets ick once in a while, but with a 40w UV sterilizer on the tank, it never gets too bad. The fish is also known as a Gold Rim or White Cheek, since it has a bright yellow ring around its body & a much larger white mark on its face compared to the harder to keep A. nigricans.

If you get a healthy one that is eating and plump, and keep it stress free, the PB is a great fish to have. Otherwise, it is a challenging species compared to most tangs & much harder than the Kole.

Anthony

[Starry]

if i get one ill get some neon gobies to add to the cleaner shrimp i allready have.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by Starry

Anyone own one of these beauties? Thinking of ordering either this or a kole. Any thoughts?

Ya, If you are planning to put it in your 70 forget about it.

Tangs are natural swimmers. You can observe them quickly swimming from one end of the tank to the other.
They require large (6 foot) tanks to accommodate their swimming behaviour and their adult size.
You are considering a kole tang which IMO is an exception because they spend all of their time consuming film algae in the tank. If you get one keep one end of the tank dirty and pile some smooth stones in your tank like the blue one you see in LFS. They soon are covered in film algae and they also double as pod homes (pod piles).

Thanks for asking before you made a purchase.

[conix67]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Both types of Powder Browns (A. nigricans and A. japonicus) are ick-magnets. My PB (A.japonicus) is a beautiful fish. Had it for 2 years now. Still gets ick once in a while, but with a 40w UV sterilizer on the tank, it never gets too bad. The fish is also known as a Gold Rim or White Cheek, since it has a bright yellow ring around its body & a much larger white mark on its face compared to the harder to keep A. nigricans.

If you get a healthy one that is eating and plump, and keep it stress free, the PB is a great fish to have. Otherwise, it is a challenging species compared to most tangs & much harder than the Kole.

Anthony

I've heard this story over and over, and the term "ick-magent" seems a little misleading.

I've had ick breakout, and read more than enough articled written about it to understand it better. What it boils down to is that if your system does not have the Marine Ick present, these ick-magnet fishes will not get icks, ever, as long as the system is kept ick-free.

UV sterilizer allows you to control icks, but not eliminate them, so the fact that your tang getting ick time to time means ick is not eliminated, and attacks the fishes when they are weak.

I don't have a UV sterilizer, and I had an ick breakout when I added my first powder brown tang. I tried known possible in-tank treatment method such as garlic extract and PolypLab Medic, but few fishes including the powder brown died.

Now I have my second powder brown in a QT, observing its health conditions. Probably not enough to prevent reoccurrence of ick, but all I can try without out-of-display-tank treatment (copper,hyposalinity) for the time being.

It's a beautiful fish, and I prefer PBT over Kole tang for the looks.

By the way, A. Japonicus is known as "White face surgeon" while A. Nigricans is known as "White cheek surgeon" or "gold rim powder brown", and the A. Nigricans is considered hardier and easier to keep than A. Japonicus.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Quoted from the Marine Center website:

Latin Name: Acanthurus japonicus. Common Name: Powder Brown Tang. Also known as Powder Brown Tang, Goldrim Surgeonfish, Japanese Surgeonfish



Quoted from Wetwebmedia website:

Acanthurus (glaucopareius) nigricans (Linnaeus 1958), the Powder Brown or Gold-Rimmed Surgeon (and Whitecheek Surgeon to science), Cat Tang in Hawai'i.... The corrected scientific name of this species is A. nigricans (per Randall, 1988); a revision no doubt as unpopular to some as my labeling the species as "bad". The very similar A. japonicus is a far better aquarium fish; A. nigricans rarely lives for more than a few months in captivity, often, oh joy, bringing in parasitic Protozoan disease to take the rest of your fish livestock with them.

From my own & other reefer friends' experiences, the A. japonicus (with the bigger white markings) survives better.

Also, I've known several reefers (including those who posted their experience here on Canreef) who had the same fish for a over a year without adding anything new & no sign of ick, but when the fish were stressed (ie. heater died, power outage), their fish came down with ick despite 2 or 3 years without any ick present.

I find that ick-magnet fish like Powder browns, Powder blues & Porcupine puffers are easily stressed & so when something new happens, like a new fish is added, they are the first to have a few white specks appear.

Anthony

[conix67]

From the same site under "A. Japonicus" -

The powder brown is similar to the Gold Rim Tang (Acanthurus nigricans).

under A. Nigricans

Gold Rim Tang, Powder Gray Surgeonfish, Whitecheek Surgeonfish

The Gold Rim Tang is less frequently available than the similar Powder Brown Tang.

So the information presented is a little inconsistent but my pocket guide by Scott W. Michael - Marine Fishes - ISBN 978-1-8900-8738-8 clearly states A. Japonicus as Power Brown and A. Nigricans as Whitecheek.

The easy of care rating at www.themarinecenter.com for A. Nigiricans is higher than A. Japonicus.

From the animal-world.com

When purchasing this tang, you will want to be sure you are getting the correct species. Both the White-faced Surgeonfish and the Gold-rimmed Tang (Whitecheek Surgeonfish) A. nigricans are regularly sold as the 'Powder Brown Tang'. Though they look very similar the White-faced Surgeonfish will show a pronounced "white-face" along with its red stripe on the dorsal fin, these markings will be lacking on the other. Also the White-faced Surgeonfish is a relatively hardy aquarium inhabitant once acclimated while its almost 'look-alike' cousin is more difficult to sustain in captivity.


http://animal-world.com/encyclo/mari.../japonicus.php

The wet-web media site description is a little different from the rest..

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/GoldRimSs.htm

But between two, A. Japonicus has a lot more brown in color, and if it fares better than A. Nigricans, I can't really complain about it, as I like A. Nigricans better and that's what I consider a Powder Brown tang

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yeah, there is a lot of confusion surrounding these two similar species.

I personally prefer the A. japonicus, so that works for me too

Cheers.

BTW, to the OP, for a 75g, a Kole tang or other bristlemouth tang would probably be a better choice anyways.

Anthony

[conix67]

Correction - I like A. Japonicus better.. they are both pretty though