Acanthurus fowleri – Fowler’s Surgeonfish

Acanthurus fowleri – Fowler’s Surgeonfish

Acanthurus fowleri becomes pretty big. They can reach a total length of around 50 centimeters and therefore need a very large aquarium. Adults are brown / bluish in color, have a white band over the caudal peduncle and a yellow band in their dorsal fin. They have yellow accents on the pectoral fin, mouth and on the tips of their caudal fin.

Juveniles have a changing juvenile dress. So read carefully before you buy a beautifully colored small specimen that grows into a considerably differently colored adult fish.

Origin

You can find Acanthurus fowleri in the seas around the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and off the north coast of Australia. They inhabit the reefs at depths of around 2 to 20 meters.

Diet

The diet consists mainly of algae and detritus. It is therefore important to place them only in a properly matured aquarium.

The Aquarium

This species is only suitable for very large and well matured aquariums. You can best keep them solitary. If you want to keep more than one Surgeon Fish, it’s best to buy them at the same time so that they grow up together. In any case, make sure that you choose species that do not look the same to prevent aggression. This species is reefsafe and picks the algae between the corals. They like a fair amount of current, which may vary in strength.

Warning

Like all Surgeonfish, Acanthurus fowleri have a retractable scalpel on each side of their caudal peduncle. This is a defense mechanism that the fish can use to defend themselves. One of the scales has become a strong and razor-sharp retractable knife. In the event of an emergency, the doctor’s fish can open the knife and slash out with its tail. So be careful when catching surgeonfish!

Author

John de Lange

Copyright images

Rickard Zerpe – CC BY 2.0