Sunburst butterflyfish

The sunburst butterflyfish is a small reef butterflyfish that grows to about 15 cm. It swims alone or in pairs, and pairs are most common in the breeding season. It is an omnivore and feeds mainly on the polyps of soft corals, along with algae and plankton drifting in the water.

Also known as: brown butterflyfish, klein's butterfly, klein's butterflyfish, klein's coralfish, klein’s butterfly fish, yellowspot butterflyfish, white-spotted butterflyfish, klein's butterfly, klein's coralfish, brown butterflyfish, klein<92>s butterfly fish, whitespotted butterflyfish, sunburst butterflyfish, klein's butterflyfish, butterflyfish, bluehead butterflyfish, sunburst butterflyfish, bluehead butterflyfish, white-spotted butterflyfish, white-spotted butterfly-fish, klein’s butterfly fish

Start at the face. The snout is black, a black bar runs down through the eye, and the patch in front of that bar is whitish, so the fish looks as if it is wearing a black mask over a pale muzzle. Then check the tail: its rear edge is transparent, so the tail looks as though it fades out at the tip. Those two marks stay the same everywhere. The number of pale body bars does not.

The body is yellowish brown and is crossed by one or two broad, lighter vertical bars. One bar runs from the start of the spiny back fin down to the belly; the second, when present, runs from the middle of the back to the centre of the body. A black bar runs down through the eye, and the area in front of it is whitish, with a black snout. Fine dotted stripes run lengthwise along the sides, and the rear edge of the tail is clear.

It lives across the tropical Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa east to the central Pacific, and there is also a population in the Galapagos. Look for it in deeper lagoons, in channels between reefs and on seaward reefs. It is found from about 4 m down to 61 m, but usually below 10 m, so it is more often a fish of the deeper part of a dive than of the shallow top of the reef.

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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