How to Identify Banded Butterflyfish

Video Transcript

The fish that we are going to identify now is the Banded Butterflyfish. The Banded Butterflyfish is one of the five species of butterflyfish that you most commonly see in the tropical waters around the U.S. and the Caribbean. Banded Butterflyfish are generally shallow water fish, rarely venturing below sixty feet of depth. Banded Butterflyfish reach a maximum size of six inches in length, but usually are between three and five inches in length. Their bodies are disk shaped so they are not nearly as tall as they are long. Banded Butterflyfish are bright white to almost silver in color with black vertical bands over the body. The first one of these bands goes over the eye which makes it difficult for predators to figure out which is the front and which is the back of the Banded Butterflyfish. Banded Butterflyfish are usually seen in pairs and generally these are bonded pairs, which means they stay together for very long periods of time, perhaps even their entire lifetime. Banded Butterflyfish can be seen flitting from coral head to coral head where they feed on coral polyps and other small animals. If you remain stationary along their paths of travel Banded Butterflyfish will often pass very closely by snorkelers and divers. That's the Banded Butterflyfish.

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