Chaetodon striatus, Banded Butterflyfish [+]
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Actinopterygii
Order Perciformes
Family Chaetodontidae
Genus Chaetodon
species: Chaetodon striatus [+ITIS +WoRMS]
|
← Previous Photo | Next Photo → |
Description & Behavior
Carolus Linnaeus first described the banded butterflyfish as Chaetodon striatus in 1758. The name "Chaetodontidae" means "bristle-tooth," while "striatus" refers to the thick black vertical stripes—two on the side and a third extending from the dorsal fin to the caudal peduncle—stretching down its silvery body. The pelvic fins, except for the spine, are also black. A well-known denizen of commercial aquariums, the species has a short snout and a vertically flattened, squarish "disk-shaped" body. It has 12 dorsal spines, 19 to 21 dorsal soft rays, 3 anal spines, and 16 to 17 anal soft rays. The adult banded butterflyfish grows to a maximum length of about 15 cm. Maturity is reached at lengths around 12 cm.
World Range & Habitat
The banded butterflyfish is associated with tropical marine reefs from 43° N to 23° S, at depths of 3 to 55 meters. In the Western Atlantic, it can be found from Massachusetts to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. In the Eastern Central Atlantic it is found off St. Paul's Rocks.
Feeding Behavior (Ecology)
The banded butterflyfish feeds primarily on polychaete worms, coral polyps, crustaceans and mollusk eggs, scraping the invertebrates with its bristly teeth. Adults may form plankton-feeding aggregations of up to 20 individuals, and occasionally clean other reef fishes which join the group, such as grunts, parrotfishes and surgeon fishes. It is a diurnal species, active during the day and sleeping at night. At the end of the day it seeks shelter from night predators such as moray eels, sharks, and other large reef fishes.
Life History
The banded butterflyfish, Chaetodon striatus, reproduces quickly. Its minimum population doubling time is less than 15 months. Banded butterflyfish adults are most often seen in male-female pairs and may be monogamous throughout life. Courtship between the two is drawn out and energetic; the fish circle each other, head to tail, then chase each other around the nearest coral reef, shooing away other fish that dare to approach. Spawning takes place at dusk as the female releases 3,000 to 4,000 small, pelagic eggs. The larvae, which hatch within a day, are characteristic only to the butterflyfish family, with the head encased in bony armor and bony plates extending backwards from the head. The larvae are gray and almost transparent, useful adaptations for any species living in the water column. By 24 hours after hatching, however, they have taken on the color of juveniles. Juveniles look different from adults; they have a large, ringed black spot at the base of the dorsal fin that acts as a false eye, confusing a predator as to which end is the front of the fish. Juveniles may retain this spot up to a size of 5 centimeters, after which it begins to fade away. The overall body color of juveniles is brownish-yellow instead of white and may serve as camouflage, as banded butterflyfish juveniles often inhabit sea grass beds.
Conservation Status/Additional Comments
Neither endangered nor dangerous to humans, the banded butterflyfish nonetheless presents one small problem to aquarium keepers—its strange diet is difficult to reproduce in a tank. In the wild, the fish tends to ignore divers, but will swim away if approached.
References & Further Research
BioOne ~ CITES ~ Discover Life ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList ~ MarineBio Network ~ NCBI ~ SCIRIS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ Wikipedia
Banded butterflyfish - Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department
Search the Web for Banded Butterflyfish » ARKive ~ Ask.com ~ Ask Jeeves ~ bing ~ deviantART ~ dmoz ~ Dogpile ~ Google Images ~ MySpace Images ~ OceanFootage ~ Picsearch ~ StumbleUpon ~ Yahoo! Images ~ YouTube
