All fish / Acanthuridae

Elongate Unicornfish

Naso lopezi

Also known as lopez's unicornfish, elongate unicorn tang, lopez unicorn tang, slender unicornfish, naso lopezi tang, ナガテングハギモドキ, 洛氏鼻鱼

This is a slim, grey to brownish unicornfish covered in fine dark spots. It has no forehead horn, and each side of the tail base carries two fixed blue-edged plates. It swims in open water around outer reef slopes and feeds mostly on zooplankton, so aquarists with very large tanks keep it as an active, unusual tang.

Care at a glance

Care level

Hard

Temperament

Semi

Adult size

50 cm

Temperature

24 to 28 °C

pH

8.1 to 8.4

Smallest tank

2000 litres

Keep as

Singly, or as a group only in very large systems

Diet

Omnivore: zooplankton such as mysis and krill, plus nori and marine algae

Swims

Middle of the tank

Lifespan

10 to 20 years

Water

Marine (saltwater)

Wild range

Indo-West Pacific: Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, southern Japan to the Great Barrier Reef and Micronesia

Breeding

In the wild it spawns in open water and has pelagic larvae. There are no reliable reports of it being bred in home aquariums.

Good to know

It grows to around 50 to 60 cm and needs a lot of open swimming room, so it only suits public aquaria or very large reef systems. Like other surgeonfishes, the blades on its tail base can cut fish and hands. It can be confused with other plain grey Naso species.