Night surgeon
Acanthurus thompsoni (Fowler, 1923)
Status not recordedbony fish
The night surgeon (Acanthurus thompsoni) is a species in the family Acanthuridae, order Acanthuriformes.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the night surgeon
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the night surgeon live?
Not recorded
Is the night surgeon endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the night surgeon classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classTeleostei
- orderAcanthuriformes
- familyAcanthuridae
- genusAcanthurus
- SpeciesAcanthurus thompsoni (Fowler, 1923)
Synonyms Acanthurus philippinus, Hepatus philippinus, Hepatus thompsoni, Teuthis thompsoni
Other names and names in other languages (23)
- Chocolate surgeonfishEnglish
- Night surgeonfishEnglish
- Thompson's surgeonfishEnglish
- Thompson's tangEnglish
- Whitetail surgeonfishEnglish
- Sjokolade-doktervisAfrikaans
- Peix cirurgià de ThompsonCatalan
- IndanganCebuano
- 粗皮仔Chinese
- bodlok ThompsonůvCzech
- Thompsons KirurgfiskDanish
- Pez Cirujano de ThompsonSpanish
- Chirurgien à Queue BlancheFrench
- Pesce chirurgo di ThompsonItalian
- オハグロハギJapanese
- Cirurgião ChocolatePortuguese
- Pone-i'usinaSamoan
- maitoTahitian
- LabahitaFilipino
- 黃尾刺尾鯛Chinese
- Chirurgien de ThompsonFrench
- OhagurohagiJapanese
- Cirurgião-de-ThompsonPortuguese
Relatives of the night surgeon
Other species in the same genus Acanthurus.
Blue surgeonfish
Acanthurus leucosternon
Clown tang
Acanthurus lineatus
Convictfish
Acanthurus triostegus
Palani
Acanthurus dussumieri
Sohal
Acanthurus sohal
Redspot tang
Acanthurus achilles
CompareNight surgeon vs Blue surgeonfishNight surgeon vs Clown tangNight surgeon vs ConvictfishNight surgeon vs Palani
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
What kind of animal is the night surgeon?
The night surgeon (Acanthurus thompsoni) belongs to the family Acanthuridae in the order Acanthuriformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Night surgeon (Acanthurus thompsoni). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-surgeon
“Night surgeon (Acanthurus thompsoni).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-surgeon.
@misc{night_surgeon_2026,
title = {Night surgeon (Acanthurus thompsoni)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-surgeon},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}