Yellow Tang (lau 'ipala)

Description:

All yellow except for a white tail spine, they can be seen from quite a distance in clear water. Grow to 8 inches.

Habitat:

Although ranging as far as Guam and Japan, the species is only abundant in Hawaii and this is the only place you can see large schools of the beautiful fish.

Notes:

Sometimes they clean sea turtles. These fish can live 20 - 30 years! Collecting fish for aquariums from Hawaiian waters has contributed to declining numbers of Yellow Tangs in the past. In 1999, the State banned the collection of targeted species along 150 miles of the Kona coast and in 6 years there were significant increases in fish populations. State biologist William Walsh is recommending that all islands ban fish collecting along 20% of their coastlines. It would be a shame to lose these beautiful reef species to private aquariums!