nrawdu
New Member
Hello folks,
I was wondering if you here at the SF Forums know the difference between juvenile Naso vlamingii ("Bignose Unicorn Tang") and Naso brevirostris ("Spotted Unicorn Tang"). During their youth, I've noticed it's pretty difficult to distinguish between them. I was once sold a N. vlamingii mistakenly, having been told it was a N. brevirostris (much to my disappointment, seeing as the latter is my favorite kind of fish, and the one I had ultimately asked for at the pet shop!)
When they grow, however, it's a bit easier to recognize them individually — N. brevirostris are typically light blue, with no elongated tail fins, grey spots, and their "horn" prominence sticks out a bit. N. vlamingii are grey-green-blue, their spots are very blue and visible, elongated tail fins, and with their characteristic "nose bump".
N. vlamingii
N. brevirostris
To show how strikingly similar these two fish are when they are young...:
This is a N. brevirostris listing from ThatPetPlace, and this is a N. vlamingii listing from the same store, which looks pretty much just like the N. brevirostris one. Is it because the two are truly indistinguishable when they are young, or can they actually be singled out somehow?
Thanks for reading and/or answering this, guys. I've always been kind of curious about what the true differences are between these two fish during their earlier stages but haven't been able to find out, yet.
I was wondering if you here at the SF Forums know the difference between juvenile Naso vlamingii ("Bignose Unicorn Tang") and Naso brevirostris ("Spotted Unicorn Tang"). During their youth, I've noticed it's pretty difficult to distinguish between them. I was once sold a N. vlamingii mistakenly, having been told it was a N. brevirostris (much to my disappointment, seeing as the latter is my favorite kind of fish, and the one I had ultimately asked for at the pet shop!)
When they grow, however, it's a bit easier to recognize them individually — N. brevirostris are typically light blue, with no elongated tail fins, grey spots, and their "horn" prominence sticks out a bit. N. vlamingii are grey-green-blue, their spots are very blue and visible, elongated tail fins, and with their characteristic "nose bump".
N. vlamingii
N. brevirostris
To show how strikingly similar these two fish are when they are young...:
This is a N. brevirostris listing from ThatPetPlace, and this is a N. vlamingii listing from the same store, which looks pretty much just like the N. brevirostris one. Is it because the two are truly indistinguishable when they are young, or can they actually be singled out somehow?
Thanks for reading and/or answering this, guys. I've always been kind of curious about what the true differences are between these two fish during their earlier stages but haven't been able to find out, yet.