Bony Fish Codexery

Butterflyfish

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Butterflyfish

Charles J. Sharp · via Wikipedia: Butterflyfish · CC BY-SA 4.0

They lack the preopercle spines found on angelfish gill covers.[1] Reefs in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans are the primary habitat for the 129 species distributed across 12 genera.[2]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassActinopterygii
  4. DivisionTeleostei
  5. OrderAcanthuriformes
  6. FamilyChaetodontidae

Named by Rafinesque, 1810

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Butterflyfish (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Genera count
12
Size range
12 to 22 cm (4.7 to 8.7 in / 22.1 cm); largest species reach 30 cm (12 in)

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

Butterflyfish mostly range from 12 to 22 cm in length.[3] Black, white, blue, red, orange, and yellow are among the vivid colors that adorn the bodies of numerous butterflyfish species.[3] A number of species exhibit drab coloration.[3] Flank eyespots and dark eye bands are common features among many butterflyfish.[3]

Their compressed, deep bodies stand out clearly against the backdrop of the reef.[3] Buoyant eggs are released into the water column by butterflyfish, which are pelagic spawners.[4] During the tholichthys stage, the larval fish are encased in large, head-extending bony plates.[4] The scats (Scatophagidae) are the only other fish family that undergoes this armored phase.[4]

What the specialist sources record

The World Register of Marine Species lists Chaetodontidae under order Acanthuriformes.[5] GBIF places the family in order Perciformes.[6] The earliest confirmed butterflyfish fossils are Early Oligocene specimens from Germany, Poland, and Italy.[7] The 2003 paper by W. E. H. Harcourt Smith revised the phylogeny and taxonomy of butterflyfishes.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Butterflyfish" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fricke, "ESCHMEYER'S CATALOG OF FISHES: CLASSIFICATION", California Academy of Sciences, 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Butterflyfish" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "FAMILY Details for Chaetodontidae - Butterflyfishes", www.fishbase.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Butterflyfish" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smith, W. (2003). The evolution of the laterophysic connection with a revised phylogeny and taxonomy of butterflyfishes (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae). Cladistics ; "Encyclopedia of Fishes", Academic Press, 1998, p. 184 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Butterflyfish" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Encyclopedia of Fishes", Academic Press, 1998, p. 184 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. World Register of Marine Species, Chaetodontidae (AphiaID 125528). CC BY 4.0. marinespecies.org
  6. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Chaetodontidae (taxon key 8517). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Butterflyfish" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Marrama', "A Rupelian Coral Reef Fish Assemblage from the Venetian Southern Alps (Berici Hills, Ne Italy)", Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 2022-04-28 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. W. E. H. HARCOURT SMITH, "The evolution of the laterophysic connection with a revised phylogeny and taxonomy of butterflyfishes (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae)", Cladistics (2003), doi:10.1016/s0748-3007(03)00070-7. OpenAlex metadata CC0; paper not read. doi.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Butterflyfish (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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