Description
Also known as Blue Chevron Butterflyfish, Brownface Butterflyfish, Coralfish, Larvatus Butterflyfish, Masked Butterflyfish, Maskface Hooded Butterflyfish, Orangeface Butterflyfish, Orange-faced Butterflyfish, Orangehead Butterflyfish, Redhead Butterflyfish, Red Sea Butterflyfish, Red Sea Triangular Butterflyfish.
Found singly or in pairs, close to Acropora plate-like corals, over shallow water, coral and rocky reefs, rich in coral growth.
They feed on coral polyps.
Length - 12cm
Depth - 3-12m
Western Indian Ocean - Red Sea, Gulf of Aden
Butterflyfishes have very fine hair like teeth that enable them to pick out small organisms inaccessible to most other fish for eating.
They thrive mainly on a diet of coral polyps, tentacles of featherdusters and Christmas-tree worms. As these food sources all zap back into their shells, butterflyfishes need to be able to hover motionless while picking at the coral and to dart swiftly over short distances to get the worm before it retracts. They do this by using their Pectoral fins as oars to brake, sprint, turn and even reverse. Ref: https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Chaetodon-larvatus
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