---
title: "Cirurgião-patela"
description: "Paracanthurus hepatus — Peixes. Paracanthurus hepatus is a species of Indo-Pacific surgeonfish."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/palette-tang
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Cirurgião-patela

> Paracanthurus hepatus — Peixes. Paracanthurus hepatus is a species of Indo-Pacific surgeonfish.

- Scientific name: *Paracanthurus hepatus*
- Category: `fish` (Peixes)
- Habitats: `sea` (Mar e costa), `zoo` (Zoo e animais de estimação)
- iNaturalist observations: 2071
- Wikidata: [Q278307](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q278307)
- iNaturalist taxon: [130879](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130879)

## Names

- en: Palette Tang
- de: Paletten-Doktorfisch
- es: Pez cirujano azul
- fr: Chirurgien-palette
- nl: Picasso-doktersvis
- pt: Cirurgião-patela
- pl: Pokolec królewski

## Countries with the most observations

ID (146), AU (98), SC (39), FJ (32), JP (20), MP (19), TZ (19), MY (17), NC (16), CX (15), TW (14), ZA (12)

## Summary

Paracanthurus hepatus is a species of Indo-Pacific surgeonfish. A popular fish in marine aquaria, it is the only member of the genus Paracanthurus. 
A number of common names are attributed to the species, including palette surgeonfish, blue surgeonfish,  blue tang (leading to confusion with the Atlantic species Acanthurus coeruleus), flagtail surgeonfish, hepatus tang, Indo-Pacific bluetang, regal blue surgeonfish, wedge-tailed tang, wedgetail blue tang, royal blue tang, hippo tang, blue hippo tang, regal tang,  and regal blue tang.
It is most closely related to genus Zebrasoma, with which it forms a sister group.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracanthurus

## Photo

![Cirurgião-patela](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/palette-tang/medium.jpg)

Photo: kfa · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67295713

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/palette-tang?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).