Species profile
Blue tang
Paracanthurus hepatus
ai-generated confidence: high
AI-generated aquarium-care values from common marine hobby consensus; expert review is recommended before launch-quality advice.
Care table
| Water type | saltwater |
|---|---|
| Care level | moderate to advanced |
| Minimum tank | 180 US gal / 681 L |
| Minimum group size | 1 |
| Adult size | 30 cm |
| Temperature | 24-27 C |
| pH | 8-8.4 |
| Hardness | Not applicable or not reviewed-Not applicable or not reviewed dGH |
| Salinity | 33-35 ppt |
| Temperament | semi-aggressive active grazer |
| Aggression notes | Large, fast surgeonfish for very large mature systems; can be disease-prone and quarrelsome with tangs. |
| Diet | omnivore with heavy algae |
| Swim zone | middle/all |
| Activity level | very active |
| Bioload | high |
| Reef safe | Yes |
| Plant safe | Not applicable or not reviewed |
| Invert safe | Yes |
| Compatibility tags | saltwater, reef-safe, tang, active-swimmer, very-large-tank, semi-aggressive, high-bioload |
| Avoid with tags | small-tank, similar-tang, very-aggressive-fish, new-unstable-tank |
Tank mate compatibility
Generated same-water-type pair checks for Blue tang.
- Can Blue tang and Banggai cardinalfish live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Firefish goby live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Green chromis live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Mandarin dragonet live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Ocellaris clownfish live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Royal gramma live together? caution
- Can Blue tang and Yellow tang live together? not recommended
Sources and attribution
Source links are verification references for taxonomy and identifiers. Aquarium-care values are AI-generated from common hobby consensus and need expert review before launch-quality advice.
- Wikidata search - Taxonomy/identifier verification lead only.
- GBIF species search - Taxonomy verification lead only.
- WoRMS taxon search - Marine taxonomy verification lead only.