If you're a Zebrasoma fish ultra geek (like most of us), you've heard the term “Yurple Tang” in hushed tones. If you're a budding fish geek who hasn't heard of it, today's your lucky day. Tangs (or surgeonfish) are immensely popular in aquariums for their amazing colors, high activity, good durability and unsurpassed appetites for a variety of nuisance algae species. As a result, they have been on the list of fish everyone was hoping would be aquacultured someday and a few years back, against all odds and through a laundry list of seemingly insurmountable factors, it was finally done (which is another story, but one you can read about here on our website). Never one to rest on their laurels, Bali Aquarich then took this one breathtaking step further, and hybridized two of the world's most popular species, the always stunning Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens) native to the waters of Hawaii and the rare and uber-desirable Puple Tang (Zebrasoma xanthurum) native to the portions of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Unlike many wild hybrids that we occasionally see, these two species are separated by thousands of miles and will never have the opportunity to hybridize in the wild, meaning that these captive bred fish are the only ones to ever exist!
Both these parent species are hardy in the home aquarium given enough space, flow, and good nutrition. Space and flow are just a matter of hardware, but getting these fish adequate nutrition was a failing point for many aquarists before the advent of really well rounded, high quality processed foods. They are often (and erroneously) described as living almost entirely off algae, and while this is an important part of their diet, they consume an incredible amount of protein from the little invertebrates living in those algae. This fact was a common oversight among early tang keepers and that fact alone gave these fish an undeserved reputation for being difficult to keep. We feed our Yurples (and all the other Tangs here) a mix of Nutramar Foods, starting with the Algae and Color Boost Shots and Pellets. Click here to learn more
Both these parent species are hardy in the home aquarium given enough space, flow, and good nutrition. Space and flow are just a matter of hardware, but getting these fish adequate nutrition was a failing point for many aquarists before the advent of really well rounded, high quality processed foods. They are often (and erroneously) described as living almost entirely off algae, and while this is an important part of their diet, they consume an incredible amount of protein from the little invertebrates living in those algae. This fact was a common oversight among early tang keepers and that fact alone gave these fish an undeserved reputation for being difficult to keep. We feed our Yurples (and all the other Tangs here) a mix of Nutramar Foods, starting with the Algae and Color Boost Shots and Pellets. Click here to learn more
