Bright yellow in color, it is one of the most popular marine aquarium fish, though in its natural state, it lives in reefs.

The yellow tang spawns around a full moon, eats algae, and has a white barb, located just before the tail fin, to protect itself.

[3] The yellow tang was first formally described by English naturalist Edward Turner Bennett as Acanthurus flavescens in 1828 from a collection in the Hawaiian Islands.

[6] Based on the gene Cytochrome C-oxidase 1 (CO1), a group of researchers was able to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree of the genus Zebrasoma with mitochondrial barcoding sequences.

At night, the yellow coloring fades slightly, and a prominent brownish patch develops in the middle with a horizontal white band.

[3] In the wild, yellow tangs feed on benthic turf algae and other marine plant material.

However, most experts in the marine aquarium industry express little scepticism that such a well rounded and balanced diet including plant and animal material would be in any way detrimental to mostly herbivorous fishes like tangs since they still need on occasion, complex amino acids and nutrients that only ocean animals can provide.

In the wild, yellow tangs provide cleaner services to marine turtles, by removing algal growth from their shells.

It is commonly found in shallow reefs, from 2–46 metres (6.6–150.9 ft) deep, in the Pacific Ocean (Ryukyu, Mariana, Marshall, Marcus, Wake, and Hawaiian islands),[3] west of Hawaii and east of Japan.

[10] As of July of 2024, yellow tangs have been spotted several times on the shallow reefs of Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

[13] The yellow tang has many natural predators, including larger fish, sharks, crabs, and octopuses.

Examples of habitat destruction caused by humans are pollution that started on land and flows into the water, physical damage and destruction from harmful fishing practices, as well as overfishing, coral harvesting,[16] and snorkeling, which can potentially cause reef damage.

[2] They investigated the yellow tang, because larva of this species stay in the general area of the reef in which they first settle.