Longnose butterfly fish

The yellow longnose butterflyfish is a small, bright yellow reef fish named for its long, thin snout, shaped like a pair of forceps - hence its other name, the forcepsfish. It grows to about 22 cm and uses that narrow snout to pick tiny prey out of cracks and crevices.

Also known as: forceps fish, longnose butterfly fish, longnose butterflyfish, long nose butterfly, long-nose butterflyfish, long-nosed butterflyfish, long-nosed coralfish, longnosed butterflyfish, longsnouted butterflyfish, longnose butterfly fish, longnosed butterflyfish, long-nose butterflyfish, forcepsfish, common longnose butterflyfish, forceps fish, yellow long nose butterfly, long-nosed butterflyfish, long nose butterfly, long-snouted butterfly fish, longsnouted butterflyfish, longnose butterflyfish, common longnose butterflyfish, forceps butterflyfish, yellow longnose butterflyfish, forceps fish

Several reef butterflyfish are yellow with a long snout, which can make them hard to tell apart at a glance. The giveaway on this one is the sharp black-and-white split on the head, paired with the single dark spot low on the anal fin.

The body is deep and flattened side to side, almost entirely bright yellow, fins included, apart from one dark spot on the anal fin near the base of the tail. The snout is long and slender. The head is split in colour: black on top, white to silver below.

This is a warm-water reef fish of the tropical Indo-Pacific, from East Africa and the Red Sea to Hawaii, and it also lives in the eastern Pacific from Baja California to the Galapagos. It is most common on exposed seaward reefs but also turns up on sheltered lagoon reefs, from 2 to 145 m deep.

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  Banded Butterflyfish

  Chaetodon striatus

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  Blackback butterflyfish

  Chaetodon melannotus

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  Butterflyfish

  butterfly_fish

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  Chevron butterflyfish

  Chaetodon trifascialis

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  Copperband butterflyfish

  Chelmon rostratus

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  Four-eyed Butterflyfish

  Chaetodon capistratus