Orange Shoulder tang; disease, or natural change?

[michika]

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.







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?

[michika]

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

[michika]

bump

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[christyf5]

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




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.

Maybe try wetwebmedia FAQs?

[michika]

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:


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!

[naesco]

What are you feeding her and how often?