WHATSTHATFISH
Bony fish

Black-wedged Butterflyfish

Chaetodon falcula

Also known as: Coralfish, Double-saddle Butterfly, Falcula Butterfly, Falcula Butterflyfish, Indian Double-saddle Butterflyfish, Pigface Coralfish, Saddleback Butterfly, Saddleback Butterflyfish, Saddled Butterflyfish, Sickle Butterflyfish

LCLeast ConcernIUCN Red List, 2010
Adult
@Monikaw · Embudu and Vilamendu, Maldives · February 20161 / 8
01

Overview

Found in pairs or small schools, over current swept reef edges, and upper slopes of reefs.
Juveniles singly and secretive, hiding in corals.

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.

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How to identify

Head & Mouth
eye stripe

Tap any trait to see other fish that share it.

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Habitat & where to find it

  • Range · Indian Ocean
  • Country only · 8
LIVES IN

Found in pairs or small schools, over current swept reef edges, and upper slopes of reefs.

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Adult photos 8

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Discussion

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    ALL STAGES
    FOR THE MARINE-BIOLOGY CURIOUS

    Deep dive

    Taxonomy

    1. kingdomAnimalia
    2. phylumChordata
    3. classTeleostei
    4. orderAcanthuriformes
    5. familyChaetodontidae
    6. genusChaetodon
    7. speciesChaetodon falcula Bloch, 1795

    SourcesWoRMSFishBase

    06

    More in the family

    Butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae)