Gold rim tang

[66chuck]

Any experience with a gold rim tang? Curious because my lfs has two beautiful ones. I'm not buying (even though I'd like to have one) just curious. Several sites list them as "easy" to care for, yet I've always heard that they are fragile and hard to care for.??

 

[saltn00b]

i believe that is more commonly referred to as a powder brown. similar to the powder blue tangs. pretty fish, and are relatively easy to keep if you the proper sized tank and quarantining practices to keep them ick free

 

[66chuck]

I'm not sure that they are the same fish. The ones in the lfs store have a richer color than the powder browns that they have - unless they are the same fish from a different region of the world.

 

[m0nk]

They seem to only be different in the coloring from the powder brown tang. The general shape, size, care, etc, matches the powder brown and powder blue fairly well.

 

[aquaknight]

Two different species of fish, the Goldrim (Acanthurus nigricans) and Powder Brown (Acanthurus japonicus). Very similar though, a must for a proper QT treatment before introduction. Or then very suspetible to Ich and other diseases, they do well in aquariums, take to food well. If you can, they should be the last fish added to the tank, was established, they get aggressive to newcomers.
Agreed on the Goldrim > PBT though.

 

[rustyj]

A good way to tell the difference is the white marking on the snout. The one that is easy to keep has white from the mouth to the eye, the other one that does poorly has only white below its eye.

 

[saltn00b]

Acanthurus nigricans (Linnaeus 1958), the Powder Brown or Gold-Rimmed Surgeon (and Whitecheek Surgeon to science). The corrected scientific name of this species is A. nigricans (per Randall, 1988); a revision no doubt as unpopular to some as my labeling the species as "bad". The very similar A. japonicus is a far better aquarium fish; A. nigricans rarely lives for more than a few months in captivity.

Acanthurus japonicus (Fowler 1946), the Japanese or White-Faced Surgeonfish; is also sold as a/the Gold-Rimmed or Powder-Brown Surgeon, confusing it with A. glaucopareius (nigricans) (see below). To further confuse matters, this fish is also sold as the Whitecheek Surgeon/Tang in the aquarium trade...A. japonicus has a much larger white eye patch. Ranges from the Philippines to Japan and is relatively hardy.

 

[rustyj]

Yeah, what he said.