Mata Tang Development - ugly duckling?

[Spartan76]

I have an approximately 5” acanthurus mata that I bought from LA about a year ago. It’s pretty drab and looks olive green/brown (under Radion G6 pro). Its blue stripes are just faintly apparent are super close viewing and you can just make out the yellow bad at its eyes. BTW the LA pic in DD was very deceiving making the fish look a lot bluer than reality. The fish is healthy and growing. Ive seen some online pics of larger 10” fish that look pretty stunning. Is this an ugly duckling that will get bluer and lighter as it grows or are these just drab colored?

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

I've seen those fish mostly looking drab...

When for different Acan. tangs in my tank that I thought were a bit more colorful.

 

[i cant think]

I have an approximately 5” acanthurus mata that I bought from LA about a year ago. It’s pretty drab and looks olive green/brown (under Radion G6 pro). Its blue stripes are just faintly apparent are super close viewing and you can just make out the yellow bad at its eyes. BTW the LA pic in DD was very deceiving making the fish look a lot bluer than reality. The fish is healthy and growing. Ive seen some online pics of larger 10” fish that look pretty stunning. Is this an ugly duckling that will get bluer and lighter as it grows or are these just drab colored?

This is a tang that changes colour depending on mood IME.
It may also be because it’s been under a Captive diet, the best way to improve the diet is throwing as many vitamins as possible into the food. I personally do this and ever since doing this, my fish have never shown better colours.

You also have to remember that when DD gets their fish in, they tend to take photos early on and those photos will show the colours that the fish has when fresh out of the ocean. After a while in captivity fish do just naturally get duller.

 

[nereefpat]

Welcome to R2R!

That's a big fish that most of us won't have much experience with. I've seen it in public aquariums, and that's about it. It seems like I saw a small one once in a store. It does look like it goes through several color changes as it matures. I'd love to see a pic if you get a chance.

 

[littlebigreef]

I had one years ago I got as a 1.5" baby from Living Seas just outside Chicago. In the course of a year it had grown to 6"+ before I had to rehome it.

Among the 'nearer' family members in the acanthus family (Dussumeri, foweri, bariene, maculiceps, xantheropthus, etc) the mata is unfortunately the poor relative when it comes to looks. The are highly able to change their appearance depending on mood.

The best recommendation I can give you would be to start feeding spectrum pellets. I've had all the afore mentioned tangs at one point or another and nothing beats the standard spectrum food when it comes to coloration though it make take 5-6 weeks to begin coloring up, possibly longer.

 

[littlefoxx]

I have an approximately 5” acanthurus mata that I bought from LA about a year ago. It’s pretty drab and looks olive green/brown (under Radion G6 pro). Its blue stripes are just faintly apparent are super close viewing and you can just make out the yellow bad at its eyes. BTW the LA pic in DD was very deceiving making the fish look a lot bluer than reality. The fish is healthy and growing. Ive seen some online pics of larger 10” fish that look pretty stunning. Is this an ugly duckling that will get bluer and lighter as it grows or are these just drab colored?

Did you ever end up taking any pictures of your mata? Looking at one but the ones on google are so different color wise