WHATSTHATFISH
Bony fish

Zanzibar Butterflyfish

Chaetodon zanzibarensis

Also known as: Coralfish, Pavillon

LCLeast ConcernIUCN Red List, 2010
Adult
@designedforx · KE, Kenya · September 20171 / 2
01

Overview

Found singly, pairs, or small schools, usually around staghorn corals, over coral and rocky reefs.

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.

02

How to identify

Head & Mouth
face stripe

Tap any trait to see other fish that share it.

03

Habitat & where to find it

  • Range · Western Indian Ocean
  • Country only · 2
LIVES IN

Found singly, pairs, or small schools, usually around staghorn corals, over coral and rocky reefs.

04

Adult photos 2

05

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 zanzibarensis Playfair, 1867

    SourcesWoRMSFishBase

    06

    More in the family

    Butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae)