Crosshatch Butterflyfish

Found singly, or in pairs, around staghorn corals, over drop-offs, of outer reef slopes.

Replaced by
Chaetodon madagaskariensis in the Indian Ocean
Chaetodon mertensii in the Pacific Ocean
Chaetodon paucifasciatus in the Red Sea

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.