{"id":14752,"date":"2024-10-30T01:20:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T05:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T23:39:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:39:51","slug":"blue-tang","status":"publish","type":"species","link":"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic blue tang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color:#000000\">Atlantic blue tangs are entirely light blue in color and disc-shaped. They have a spine at the base of their tails used to fend off predators. Young Atlantic blue tangs are bright yellow in color despite their name. They graze on algae, preventing it from overtaking coral reefs.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14753,"template":"","class_list":["post-14752","species","type-species","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Atlantic blue tang | Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atlantic blue tang | Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Atlantic blue tangs are entirely light blue in color and disc-shaped. They have a spine at the base of their tails used to fend off predators. Young Atlantic blue tangs&nbsp;&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-29T04:39:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/5725b4bb-a600-423a-ab0d-960970d763b3_lg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"856\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/\",\"name\":\"Atlantic blue tang | Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/5725b4bb-a600-423a-ab0d-960970d763b3_lg.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-30T05:20:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-29T04:39:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/5725b4bb-a600-423a-ab0d-960970d763b3_lg.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/5725b4bb-a600-423a-ab0d-960970d763b3_lg.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":856,\"caption\":\"Blue tang, Acanthurus coeruleus.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Species\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Atlantic blue tang\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/\",\"name\":\"Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\",\"description\":\"Today&#039;s Research for Tomorrow&#039;s Oceans\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/logo-mote-marine-laboratory-aquarium.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/logo-mote-marine-laboratory-aquarium.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":700,\"caption\":\"Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mote.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Atlantic blue tang | Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mote.org\/animal-encyclopedia\/blue-tang\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Atlantic blue tang | Mote Marine Laboratory &amp; Aquarium","og_description":"Atlantic blue tangs are entirely light blue in color and disc-shaped. 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