Chevron Tang Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Juveniles are bright electric blue with orange highlights, changing dramatically with age
• Adults show a deep gray-brown to blackish body covered in fine, V-shaped (chevron) pale orange stripes
• Thin yellow ring around the eye
• Small mouth with comb-like teeth used for grazing algae and detritus
• Oval, laterally compressed body typical of tangs

Common look-alikes

• Kole tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus), a close relative, has straight horizontal orange stripes rather than the fine V-shaped chevron pattern, over a more olive-brown base color.
• Other orange-striped tangs generally lack the tightly packed chevron markings unique to this species' adult pattern.
• The V-shaped, rather than straight, stripe pattern is the clearest way to separate an adult Chevron Tang from the closely related Kole Tang at a glance.

Where you'll see one

Chevron Tangs are found on rubble patches and reef slopes across the Pacific, from Hawaii through the Indo-Pacific, grazing algae and detritus from the substrate, usually alone or in small, loosely associated groups near shelter.