---
title: Desjardin's Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma desjardinii)
scientific_name: Zebrasoma desjardinii
common_name: Desjardin's Sailfin Tang
taxon: Surgeonfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-07-05T21:35:04.435Z
updated: 2026-08-13T22:44:55.685Z
tags: Desjardin's Sailfin Tang, Zebrasoma desjardinii, Surgeonfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/surgeonfishes/desjardins-sailfin-tang
---

# Desjardin's Sailfin Tang (*Zebrasoma desjardinii*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Surgeonfishes (*Acanthuridae*)
- **Size:** up to 40 cm
- **Depth:** 3-40 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef and lagoon
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- enormous dorsal and anal fins that raise the fish into a near-circle
- dark body with pale vertical bars breaking into spots on the head
- juveniles bright yellow with bold bars
- length up to 40 cm

A tang that unfolds. At rest it is a tall dark fish with pale bars; threatened, it raises a dorsal and an anal fin so large that the outline becomes a disc nearly twice its resting height, and whatever was thinking about eating it has to reconsider the size of the mouthful.

The display is aimed at predators and at other tangs, and a pair squaring up over a patch of algae will hold their fins fully spread and circle for a minute at a time.

This is the Indian Ocean and Red Sea species; the Pacific has a near-twin, and the two hybridize where their ranges meet in Indonesia. Ours is the one with the more broken, spotted head pattern.

It grazes leafy algae on reef and lagoon, and it works alone or in pairs rather than in mobs. Juveniles are bright yellow with bold bars and live in shallow rubble, looking so unlike the adult that they were once described separately.

## Also known as

- **English:** Indian Sailfin Tang, Desjardin's Sailfin Tang, Indian Sailfin Surgeonfish
- **Russian:** Зебрасома-парусник

## Scientific synonyms

- *Acanthurus desjardinii* Bennett, 1836
- *Zebrasoma desjardini* (Bennett, 1836)

## Range

United States

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/surgeonfishes/desjardins-sailfin-tang)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*