Besides, there are subtle to larger color and marking differences with locality and size that are hard to elucidate. Collecting Your Own Nowhere is the palette surgeon in great abundance, but I have collected them in Guam, Indonesia and the Philippines in the following fashion. Large individuals usually are solitary, smaller one's may be found associated in a group of ten or twenty in and around a large coral head or black coral stand that they take refuge in on a divers approach. A type of net termed a fence, mist or barrier is set up ten to thirty feet away in a U-shape. A retreat away from the area with the holed-up Paracanthurus is feigned and the specimens are chased and pressed against the fence net on showing signs of leaving their coral nest.
Surgeons appreciate high oxygen gas concentration.
Territoriality The palette surgeon gets my vote as the least territorial member of its family. To alleviate within-species aggression, if you intend to keep more than one, it is best to introduce all palette tangs at the same time. If need be, make later additions larger than extant members. There are other fishes that pester them to distraction though. This sort of behavior is natural and to be expected.