blue tangs surgeon fish
Blue tangs are small fish native to coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. The blue tang are easy to spot, thanks to their characteristically vibrant colorations of royal blue and canary yellow.
The blue tang’s notorious color patterns are not as reliable as you might think. Juvenile blue tangs are bright yellow, for instance. And as adults, the blue tang will flush deeper blues and violets as a sign of stress.
Blue tangs may look relatively harmless, but when in danger they can raise a pair of razor-sharp, venomous spines on either side of their tails. The fish then whip their bodies from side to side, threatening to stab predators with their toxin-tipped stingers.
Additionally, people who eat blue tangs have been known to develop a serious foodborne illness called ciguatera poisoning. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Ciguatera poisoning occurs because tangs sometimes eat large quantities of creatures called dinoflagellates, which create several kinds of toxins that build up in the tang’s body.