The banded butterflyfish (''Chaetodon striatus'') is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

, a

butterflyfish The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. The approximately 129 species in 12 genera are found mostly on the reefs of the Atla ...

found in the tropical western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. Common names include the banded butterflyfish, the butterbun, the butterflyfish, the Portuguese butterfly, the school mistress and the banded mariposa. The name is derived from the dark vertical bands on the

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

's body. This, combined with a vertical, black bar through the eye, is an

antipredator adaptation Anti-predator adaptations are mechanisms developed through evolution that assist prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators. Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle, namely by avo ...

, the bands disrupting the body's outlines.

Description

The banded butterflyfish grows to a maximum length of about . The dorsal fin has 12 spines and 19 to 21 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 16 to 17 soft rays. The colour of this fish is silvery with a slender black bar passing through its eye, two wide black bars in mid-body and a third wide bar that starts on the rear of the dorsal fin and continues to the

caudal peduncle Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

. The pelvic fins and the caudal fin are black.

Distribution and habitat

This fish is native to the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic Ocean at depths down to about but mostly in less than . Its range extends from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

in the United States to Santa Catarina in Brazil, and includes the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

, the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

and

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago ( pt, Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo ) is a group of 15 small islets and rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean.

. It is a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

fish and is found on coral reefs.

Behaviour

The banded butterflyfish is usually seen singly or in pairs, but can occur in small shoals of about twenty individuals. The diet is mainly small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, coral polyps,

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class (biology), class of generally marine invertebrate, marine annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that ...

worms,

tube worm A tubeworm is any worm-like sessile invertebrate that anchors its tail to an underwater surface and secretes around its body a mineral tube, into which it can withdraw its entire body. Tubeworms are found among the following taxa: * Annelida, the ...

sea anemone Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classifi ...

shttps://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Chaetodon_striatus%20-%20Banded%20Butterflyfish.pdf and various eggs. It also feeds on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

in the water column, in schools of up to 20 individuals. Sometimes it will act as a cleaning fish and remove the external parasites from surgeon fishes, grunts and parrot fishes.

Status

''C. striatus'' is a common species with a wide range. Although it is sometimes harvested for the

reef aquarium A reef aquarium or reef tank is a marine aquarium that prominently displays live corals and other marine invertebrates as well as fish that play a role in maintaining the tropical coral reef environment. A reef aquarium requires appropriately ...

trade, this is not thought to significantly impact the population which is believed to be stable. For these reasons, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has rated the fish's conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1519627

banded butterflyfish The banded butterflyfish (''Chaetodon striatus'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish found in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean from Brazil to Bermuda. Common names include the banded butterflyfish, the butterbun, the butte ...

Fish of the Eastern United States Fish of the Western Atlantic