(Acanthurus leucosternon)
Origin
The White-breasted surgeon fish is native to the Indian Ocean. It belongs to the family Acanthuridae (surgeon fishes).
It can be found in the international literature under the names: powder blue tang or powderblue surgeonfish.
Feeding over the surgeon
Almost all surgeon fish are herbivores, although some will also eat live crustaceans or flakes for fish. They have to have algae or other plant food because otherwise they won't survive.
If you don't always have algae to feed them, they can be replaced with spinach or lettuce.
Although they eat raw vegetable food, it is preferable to keep the salad in the dark until it turns white and feed them with small leaves in the middle-this will ease their digestion being easier to get the necessary nutrients.
You can supplement it with pieces of zucchini, broccoli, lettuce leaves and sushi nori (dried seaweed). Ideally, they should be fed 3 times a day.
Features and description over the surgeon
Due to the fact that they swim a lot, these fish need a lot of free space in the aquarium. If they have no place to move they start to get nervous, they struggle and shake and can get injured in corals or rocks.
Even a small wound can lead to bacterial infections or parasitic diseases, and getting sick of a fish can often be the cause of an epidemic in the aquarium. If you have a reef aquarium you need to have enough free water beside the coral rock so that the surgeon fish has room to swim.
These pesites create territories and will dominate the entire basin if they can, making space an absolute necessity. They will be very aggressive if they are introduced into the aquarium from the beginning and may even start fighting with aquarium mates.
Some surgeon fish should not be kept with those of the same species as them unless there is enough space for each to choose its own territory. Before placing the fish in the aquarium arrange in such a way corals and stones so that the surgeon fish can better delimit its territory.
Most aquarists would advise you to keep only one surgeon's fish but, because they are so easy to care for, many would like to have more. If you decide to buy two or more surgeon fish, put them in the aquarium at the same time to reduce the chances of conflict and make sure they have plenty of space.
It is among the most beautiful fish in the aquarium trade, but requires special care. It is highly susceptible to semolina, a weakness present in all this family, but exacerbated in the case of this species. It is extremely aggressive towards other surgeonfish, especially those similar to it in shape and color. Except for very large pools, it must be the only surgeonfish or tang in the aquarium. This species shows a pronounced sexual dimorphism: males are considerably smaller than females.
The average size of the surgeon fish is 23cm long. The body has an oval shape and is flattened laterally. The mouth is small, the sides are blue, and the dorsal fin and tail are yellow. The head is black and the neck area, tail and pelvic fin are white. The intensity of the majority color, blue, shows the level of health of the fish, the more intense the healthier the fish.
As I said earlier, this fish needs space, so it is recommended that the aquarium has a minimum of 400L. generally, the behavior is aggressive. The water temperature should be between 22 and 26 gr. celsius, and the ph between 8.0 and 8.4. He likes hiding places and waves. It is territorial and aggressive with other fish.
Reproduction over the surgeon
It is said that breeding in captivity is very difficult and there are no known cases. If successful multiplications these are very rare under optimal conditions.
The service life is 2-3 years. They probably live longer in the wild.
