Striped Sailfin Tang - Zambrasoma veliferum
Picture taken April 1999, Sony Mavica FD91 digital camera

Purchased: April 3rd, 1999. Nickname: Zeeb

This fish is from the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea. However, this is not a Red Sea Sailfin Tang. This is the juvenile coloration for this fish.

The picture shows the fish from its first week of being added to the tank. The white specs on this fish are not Marine Ich - it's just air bubbles in the tank water.

In the wild this fish reaches a maximum size of about 15 inches. In the aquarium it is not expected to get larger than 8 inches.

It's easy to figure out why this fish has the common name of a sailfin tang. This species is known for its large sail-like dorsal fin and almost matching anal fin. The fish was already eating Spirulina Flake Food at the local fish store which is an excellent sign. The hardest part of keeping tangs is getting them to eat. Within 5 minutes of being acclimated to the tank this sailfin finished off any signs of green macro algae growing in the tank. Within 1 hour it was eating Spirulina Flakes in the tank.

Striped Sailfin Tang - Zambrasoma veliferum
Picture taken October 2000, Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera, no flash

This is just one of the adult colors this fish displays. This happens to be its stressed colors as it did not like me pointing the camera at it.

This fish is about 6 inches in size now and is nearing its adult size. It's really neat to watch this fish change its colors as its moods change.

Striped Sailfin Tang - Zambrasoma veliferum
Picture taken September 2002, Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera, Titanium Macro Lens, no flash

This is a one in a million picture... ok, perhaps not a million but it took close to 100 shots before I got a nice crisp infocus macro shot. This is one fast fish that doesn't like his picture taken. It's been nearly two years since the last picture. It really hasn't grown much in size. It's still in the 6 to 7 inch size range.