Regal Tang – Paracanthurus hepatus
The regal tang comes from the Indo-Pacific Ocean region. The regal, do to the movie “finding Nemo” is well known. The coloration on this fish is striking. The only issue I have with this fish, and it may just be the one we have, is that it is very timid and will hide much of the time. The regal tang is also called: Blue Tang, Blue Surgeonfish, or Indo-Pacific Blue Tang
Maximum Size: The regal tang should grow to a maximum size of 12.0 inches
Minimum Tank Size: The minimum tank size should be 90 gallons
Care Level: The regal tang is a pretty hardy fish to maintain. On a scale of 1 –10, (10 being easy) it would rate a “7”. The tank should already be cycled before introducing this fish. The regal tang is known for its susceptibility to various parasites such as ich and lateral line and fin erosion.
Tank Conditions: Temperature 77-79°F; Specific gravity: 1.021 – 1.024; pH: 8.1 – 8.3; Nitrates should be no more than 20 ppm.
Color: The regal tang – as picture shows is vivid dark blue with black horizontal lines and a yellow tail.
Temperament: This is a good fish. It gets along with most tank-mates and ours has never bothers any corals or invertebrates. Actually, the fish we have is rather shy and spends much of its time hiding. One per tank should be considered.
Reef Compatible: Yes, will generally leave reef organisms alone.
 Diet: The regal tang is basically an omnivore but will eat more animal matter. Feed dried and frozen marine shrimp, mysid shrimp and brine shrimp. It will also eat algae along with sushi seaweed and herbivore foods.
Habitat: Provide with plenty of hiding places. Good water circulation is important as well as high quality water maintenance. Filtration should include a protein skimmer and activated carbon filtration.
Lighting: No special lighting requirement
Compatibility: Tang in general can be kept with, catfish, filefish, firefish, gobies, grammas, rabbitfish to name a few and they should not be housed with groupers, sharks, lionfish or rays and can be a problem if housed with damselfish, butterflyfish, cardinalfish and triggerfish.
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