Banded Butterflyfish
Chaetodon striatus
Lord Howe Island butterflyfish
Amphichaetodon howensis
About
A crisply barred butterflyfish from a small corner of the southwest Pacific. It grows to about 18 cm and lives on rocky reefs with coral, from 10 m down to 150 m, so plenty of its range sits below normal sport-diving depth. It is found along the east coast of Australia, around Lord Howe Island and down the east coast of Northland in New Zealand, and it feeds on small animals picked off the reef.
Also known as: broad-barred butterflyfish, lord howe butterflyfish, lord howe coral fish, lord howe coralfish, lord howe coral fish, lord howe butterflyfish, broad-barred butterflyfish, lord howe coralfish
- Length
- 18 cm
- Depth
- up to 150 m
How to tell it apart
Plenty of butterflyfish wear stripes, so the pattern alone will not settle it. Check the direction: on this fish the dark bars run straight up and down the body, not slanting back towards the tail, and they are the only marking it carries. A plain yellow-white butterflyfish with clean vertical bars and nothing else on it is this one.
Appearance
The disc-shaped, flattened body of a butterflyfish, carried upright and thin enough to slip between coral branches. The body is yellow to white and crossed by bold dark bars that run from the back down to the belly. Pairs form when the fish breed.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
