Zebrasoma desjardinii, commonly known as the Red Sea sailfin tang, Desjardin's sailfin tang or the Indian sailfin tang, is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Acanthuridae (the surgeonfishes, unicornfishes and tangs). It is found in the Indian Ocean.
Taxonomy
Zebrasoma desjardinii was first formally described in 1836 as Acanthurus desjardinii by the English zoologist Edward Turner Bennett with its type locality given as Mauritius. This taxon was once treated as a subspecies of the visually similar Zebrasoma velifer, but now they are again regarded as separate.
The genera Zebrasoma and Paracanthurus together make up the tribe Zebrasomini, which is placed in the subfamily Acanthurinae of the family Acanthuridae, according to the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.
Etymology
The specific name of Zebrasoma desjardinii honors the French zoologist Julien Desjardins; he lived for a number of years in Mauritius and donated a collection of fishes to the British Museum of Natural History, including the type of this species.
Description
thumb|In the [[Red Sea]]
thumb|In the Red Sea
Zebrasoma desjardinii has a tall dorsal fin that has 4 spines and between 27-31 soft rays (the longest of which is around half of the standard length); these figures for the anal fin are 2 and 22-24 respectively.
Distribution and habitat
Zebrasoma desjardinii is found in the Indian Ocean, including the eastern coast of Africa (as south as Sodwana Bay, South Africa In 1999, a pair of this species was recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, off Florida, but this was probably due to aquarium release.
Zebrasoma desjardinii is found at depths between This species may form aggregations while feeding on algae; if they do so within the territory of the predatory slingjaw wrasse, the wrasse may darken itself so as to match the color of the tangs. The wrasse then joins in the aggregation and mimics their algae-feeding actions while hunting prey.
Zebrasoma desjardinii is a pair spawner; while this is the typical trait of the species in its genus, group spawning is more common at the family level.