Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus)

Also known as Big Long-nosed Butterflyfish, Common Longnose Butterflyfish, Coralfish, Forceps Butterflyfish, Forceps Fish, Longnose Butterfly, Longnose Coralfish, Long-nosed Butterflyfish, Long-nosed Coralfish, Long-snouted Butterflyfish, Long-snouted Coralfish, Yellow Longnose Butterfly, Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish

Description

Also known as Big Long-nosed Butterflyfish, Common Longnose Butterflyfish, Coralfish, Forceps Butterflyfish, Forceps Fish, Longnose Butterfly, Longnose Coralfish, Long-nosed Butterflyfish, Long-nosed Coralfish, Long-snouted Butterflyfish, Long-snouted Coralfish, Yellow Longnose Butterfly, Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish.

Found singly, pairs, or in small schools, over exposed lagoons and seaward reefs.
They feed on small crustaceans, hydroids, fish eggs, sea urchins, and worms.
Length - 22cm
Depth - 1-145m
Widespread Eastern Pacific, Indo-Pacific

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/5584

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