Related FAQs: Chaetodon Butterflyfishes, FAQs 2, Chaetodon Identification, Chaetodon Behavior, Chaetodon Compatibility, Chaetodon Selection, Chaetodon Systems, Chaetodon Feeding, Chaetodon Disease, Chaetodon Reproduction, Butterflyfish Identification, Butterflyfish Foods/Feeding/Nutrition,  Butterflyfish Compatibility, Butterflyfish Behavior, Butterflyfish Systems, Butterflyfish Selection, Butterflyfish Disease, for now.

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Butterflyfishes of the Genus Chaetodon

Part 2 of 4 Poor Choices

To: Good, Medium, & Unknown Chaetodon Choices pages: Split up to save download time... for now.
To: Poor Chaetodon Choices part 1, part III, part IV & Unknown

By Bob Fenner

Chaetodon capistratus Linnaeus 1758, the Foureye Butterflyfish. Tropical west Atlantic, Caribbean To six inches. A broad feeding strategy, but still does poorly in adapting to captive conditions. A juvenile in an aquarium and adult at night in the Bahamas. 

Chaetodon flavirostris Gunther 1873, the Black or Yellow-Faced Butterflyfish. Usually shy and non-feeding. Eats coral polyps, other bottom-dwelling invertebrates and algae in the wild. To some eight inches long. Way too often sold to the hobby as juveniles... they don't live. The first one at a wholesalers, the second in the Cook Islands.

Chaetodon humeralis  Gunther 1860, the Sea of Cortez Three-Banded or East Pacific Butterflyfish. Found all along the tropical east Pacific coast of Central America up into the Mar de Cortez. To a maximum of seven inches in length. This one off of Costa Rica (Pacific side) 2011

Chaetodon lineolatus Cuvier 1831, the Lined Butterflyfish. At a foot long, vying for largest Butterflyfish of the family. Widespread from Hawai'i over to the east coast of Africa, into the Red Sea. A beauty that eats corals, anemones, much of all else, but doesn't live. Below: One in Hawai'i, another in Fiji, and a third in the Red Sea.