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How to tell the difference between a sailfin and Desjardini Tang?


davelin315

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I've been looking at a sailfin tang and I haven't been able to figure out if it's a regular sailfin or a Desjardini. It's very easy to tell them apart when they're adults, but this is a juvenile and I can't figure out which kind it is... anyone have a definitive answer on this? I am really struggling to tell which kind it is....

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from wet web media

 

Zebrasoma desjardinii ("day-har-din-ee-eye") (Bennett 1835), Desjardin's Sailfin Tang. Seeing this fish and Z. veliferum at the same time might cause you to do a double take; they are very similar in color and markings. Desjardin's Tang comes to the trade mainly from the Indian Ocean or Red Sea, so one way to distinguish it is by source locale (or cost). It also has a few less soft dorsal and anal fin rays (28,29D and 22-24A versus 29-33D and 23-26A for the Pacific Sailfin) if you can get yours to hold still. Actually, the easiest discernible difference is the markings on the tail. The Pacific is white, yellow and gray banded, and Desjardin's is dark with whitish yellow spots. Juvenile below. Currently considered the same species as Z. veliferum by some authorities. Below: two inch aquarium specimen, three inch one in the Seychelles, four and six inch individuals in captivity and a ten incher in the Red Sea, fourteen inch one in the Maldives.

 

 

 

 

I've been looking at a sailfin tang and I haven't been able to figure out if it's a regular sailfin or a Desjardini. It's very easy to tell them apart when they're adults, but this is a juvenile and I can't figure out which kind it is... anyone have a definitive answer on this? I am really struggling to tell which kind it is....
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