Orange shoulder tang behaviour?

[xruss]

Hello guys!

My orange shoulder tang is most of the time on the surface breathing air and making bubbles.
He or she does this since i have it, over an half year now and it is the only fish doing this.

Seems like he has fun by doing this, but now i want to know why he is doing this?

The tank where he lives in is ich free and has about 250 gallons.
The fish is now about 5" in Lenght and has the adult gray/olive color.
He shares the tank with 2 other tangs, z. velifer and another acanthurus species, the hybrid from acanthurus nigricans and acanthurus leucosternon, but he is total ignored from the other tangs.

 

[eatbreakfast]

It's just a quirky behavioral thing that is not really indicative of anything detrimental. He is just exploring/having "fun" in his environment.

 

[steve long]

Mine had some ich on it and it would lay in my star polyps I guess to try to get them to sting or eat it off him

 

[kandymann]

how about a video?

 

[xruss]

Here is a short video.

 

[yudruln8]

looks like he's just nipping at the top of the container trying to get algae

 

[4FordFamily]

After watching it a couple times, it looks like the water is turbulent up by the box he is nipping at. I agree, he may be trying to pick algae off of it, but the turbulence hitting that box may imitate what food looks like when you drop it in, and it's trying to feed. Just an observation, he might just be a silly fish!

I wouldn't worry much if it acts fine otherwise.