#2353 · 🐟 fish

Dusky Surgeonfish

Acanthurus nigrofuscus

LCleast concern 🐟 Fish 📍 outside Europe

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

Acanthurus nigrofuscus , also known as the lavender tang , brown tang , or spot-cheeked surgeonfish , is a tang from the Indo-Pacific and Hawaii. It commonly makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to 21 cm in length. Recently, a huge bacterium discovered in its intestine, Epulopiscium fishelsoni , has been found to grow as large as 600 by 80 μm, a little smaller than a printed hyphen, which controls the pH of its host's gut, thereby influencing its...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 4,161iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
4,161 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Peter Forsskål in 1775 (251 years ago).