Yellow Tangis a long-lived species; the oldest individual collected was 41 yrs old (Claisse et al. 2009). It displays the typical Acanthurid square growth curve with high initial growth rates that rapidly decrease after the first few years (Choat and Axe 1996, Choat and Robertson 2002). Yellow Tang exhibits sexual difference in growth. Growth rates for both sexes are 300 mm per year during the first year of life to (0 to 1 yr), but males grow substantially faster than females from year 2 to 3, a trend that continues until the asymptotic size is approached. Sexual size dimorphism resulted from a higher growth rate for males through the juvenile period (Claisse et al. 2009)
