Chocolate Tang: Adult Color Determination?

[argiBK]

It seems like there’s a diverse range of color variants for adult A. pyroferus, does anyone know what determines a Chocolate Tang’s ultimate coloration?

 

[i cant think]

It seems like there’s a diverse range of color variants for adult A. pyroferus, does anyone know what determines a Chocolate Tang’s ultimate coloration?

It’s called overly edited photos and also mixing up all 3 species of mimics as adults.
the top and 2nd middle photos seem to be A. tristis.

 

[lion king]

1st off they don't photo that well, they are a gorgeous fish in person. The most common one we see is the Acanthurus pyroferus; common names will be the lemon peel, lemon, and yellow mimic. Think a more vibrant powder brown tang. As with all species there will be variations in; whether be specific region, sex, diet, lighting, and yes the method of photography. The Acanthurus chronixis, mimic half black tang is also seen available, I don't consider this fish that attractive as an adult. Think a dull Atlantic tang.

 

[lion king]

The 1st and 3rd photo could be a fish in transition. My mimic, A. pyroferus, took well over a year to 2 years to completely change to a full adult coloration. I have posted pics here that are now on a crashed computer that you may be able to find. The 2nd and 4th are good examples of an adult, the 4th being over saturated.

 

[argiBK]

I’m only asking because my old lemonpeel mimic turned into a yellow black morph (last photo in my first post). A couple months after I rehomed mine, my friend’s lemonpeel mimic turned into the light grey morph (last photo).

Since Google search/images gets things mixed up, the 3 mimic species we commonly see in the trade each seem to have a range of adult coloration. But, I do think it’s valid that A. pyroferus adults do have the variations represented in the last two photos above.

 

[jda]

All of those are the same fish under different lights, filters, edits, IMO. These are my favorite tang.

I have two chocolates in two different tanks. Here are some quick iPhone photos just now through the coralline and water spot covered nasty glass - sorry, but I was not prepared to take photos. Hope that they help.

The coralline one is in a Fish only with a LED shop light at about 4300k. The other one is in a reef with 14k Phoenix MH bulbs. No editing. If you are familiar, the fish above the chocolate is a sawtail tank from the Galapagos.

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Looks awesome

 

[rwreef]

I love my mimic tang. It will be a pleasure to see him/her grow up and change color's. I often wonder what the end result will be.