Scopas Tang (Zebrasoma scopas) Care Guide
A hardy, understated tang with a mottled brown-yellow body. While not as flashy as other Zebrasoma species, it is one of the toughest and most affordable tangs.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Zebrasoma scopas is a species in the family Acanthuridae. A hardy, understated tang with a mottled brown-yellow body. While not as flashy as other Zebrasoma species, it is one of the toughest and most affordable tangs. An excellent algae grazer and a great choice for first-time tang keepers.
Taxonomy
- Family: Acanthuridae
- Genus: Zebrasoma
- Scientific name: Zebrasoma scopas
- Other names: Brown Tang, Twotone Tang
- Origin: Indo-Pacific
Habitat
Widely distributed across the Indo-West Pacific from East Africa and the Red Sea to the Tuamotu Islands, on coral and rocky reefs at depths of 1-60 m. Adults are uniformly dark brown to charcoal with fine pale stippling; congeneric with the much more colourful yellow tang.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 300 L
- Temperature: 24-27 °C
- pH: 8.1-8.4
- GH: 8-12 °dGH
- Water flow: strong
- Adult size: 15-20 cm
- Lifespan: 8-12 years
- Difficulty: beginner
Diet
Classified as herbivore. Recommended feeding frequency: 2x daily. In captivity, offer a varied diet appropriate to the species — quality prepared foods supplemented with frozen or live items of suitable size.
Compatibility
- Temperament: semi-aggressive
- Swimming level: middle
- Compatible tank mates: Clownfish, Royal Gramma, Wrasses, Firefish Goby
- Avoid with: Other Zebrasoma Tangs
Reef compatibility
Generally classified as reef-safe: does not feed on stony or soft corals, tridacnid clams or ornamental shrimps under normal conditions.
Breeding
- Breeding strategy: egg-scatterer
- Breeding difficulty: advanced
Scopas Tang (Zebrasoma scopas) Breeding Guide
Overview
The scopas tang, Zebrasoma scopas, is an Indo-Pacific surgeonfish of the family Acanthuridae. Like other tangs it reproduces by pelagic broadcast spawning, releasing eggs and sperm into open water for external fertilisation, with planktonic eggs and larvae. For this reason it is not bred in home aquaria.
Spawning Behavior & Trigger
Surgeonfishes generally spawn at dusk in brief pair- or group-spawning events, forming aggregations and releasing gametes into the water column, with spawning often showing lunar periodicity as documented in studied Zebrasoma species. Such open-water ascents and aggregations cannot be reproduced in aquarium conditions.
Egg & Fry Care
Fertilised eggs are pelagic and develop into the transparent, open-ocean acronurus larva characteristic of tangs, which drifts in the plankton for an extended period before settling on a reef. The acronurus is fragile, sensitive to water quality and dependent on specialised micro-prey, so it cannot be reared without dedicated hatchery technology.
Common Challenges
Surgeonfish aquaculture has been achieved only at research scale; the first acanthurid bred in captivity was the yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), a Zebrasoma and family first, by the Oceanic Institute in 2015 after about a decade of work with cultured copepod prey. No comparable home-aquarium method exists for the scopas tang.