Banded Butterflyfish
Chaetodon striatus
Spotfin Butterflyfish
Chaetodon ocellatus
About
The spotfin butterflyfish is a small, disc-shaped reef fish whose eye markings are really a trick, built to send a predator's attack the wrong way.
- Length
- 20 cm
- Depth
- up to 30 m
How to tell it apart
Many butterflyfish share a black eye bar. Look instead for a dark spot near the rear edge of the dorsal fin; the species is named for this spot, and few similar reef butterflyfish carry one in the same place.
Appearance
This butterflyfish has a white, disc-shaped body with a black bar running vertically through the eye, and a narrow yellow bar between the gill opening and the base of the pectoral fin. Its dorsal, tail, and anal fins are yellow or clear. It grows up to 20cm long.
Did you know?
Each autumn, ocean currents sweep young spotfin butterflyfish far north of their Caribbean home, stranding them in bays around Long Island until the water turns too cold for them to survive.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
