Banded Butterflyfish

Fascinating facts about the Banded Butterflyfish

• A slender black stripe runs right through its eye, and this vertical bar is an antipredator adaptation that disrupts the fish’s outline.
• At just 16 cm (6.3 in) long, the banded butterflyfish has 12 dorsal spines and up to 21 soft rays, plus 3 anal spines with up to 17 soft rays.
• Although most individuals stay below 20 m (66 ft), they can be found as deep as 55 m (180 ft), inhabiting the same coral reefs from Massachusetts to Brazil. This depth range demonstrates the species’ ability to thrive across a wide span of tropical and subtropical waters.
• Up to twenty of them will gather in a school to filter plankton from the water column, while elsewhere they hunt alone or in pairs for crustaceans, coral polyps, and tube worms.
• Occasionally they act as a cleaning fish, removing external parasites from surgeon fishes, grunts and parrot fishes.

At a glance

About the Banded Butterflyfish

The banded butterflywater glides through the tropical western Atlantic with a silvery sheen broken by stark black stripes that run vertically along its flank and cut through its eye, a clever antipredator illusion that shatters its outline for predators. Growing to about 16 cm (6.3 in), this ray-finned butterflyfish boasts a dorsal fin of 12 spines and up to 21 soft rays, an anal fin with three spines and 17 soft rays, and black pelvic and caudal fins that echo the bold bars across its body. It inhabits coral reefs from the shallow reefs of Massachusetts to the subtropical waters off Santa Catarina in Brazil, usually staying above 20 m (66 ft) but occasionally diving to 55 m (180 ft). Often solitary or paired, the banded butterflyfish can form loose schools of up to twenty when feeding, darting among the reef to snatch small invertebrates, crustaceans, coral polyps, polychaete and tube worms, sea anemones, and assorted eggs. It also lifts into the water column to filter plankton, and on occasion adopts the role of a cleaner, picking parasites from surgeonfishes, grunts, and parrotfishes, a surprising cooperative twist that hints at the intricate social webs hidden beneath the reef’s surface, inviting observers to linger just a moment longer to watch the silent choreography unfold

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