The melon butterflyfish (''Chaetodon trifasciatus'') or the Indian redfin butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, 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 Atlant ...

belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Western Java. This is one species of a closely related group which includes the

blacktail butterflyfish The blacktail butterflyfish (''Chaetodon austriacus''), also known as black-tailed butterflyfish or exquisite butterflyfish, is a species marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is native to the western ...

(''C. austriacus'') of the Red Sea and

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden ( ar, خليج عدن, so, Gacanka Cadmeed 𐒅𐒖𐒐𐒕𐒌 𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒗𐒒) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channe ...

and the

oval butterflyfish The oval butterflyfish (''Chaetodon lunulatus''), red-finned butterflyfish or redfin butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the Pacific Ocean from Eastern Indon ...

(''C. lunulatus'') which is found in the western Pacific, from eastern coasts of the Indonesian islands to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Melon butterflyfish should not be confused with

chevron butterflyfish The chevron butterflyfish (''Chaetodon trifascialis''), also known as chevroned butterflyfish, triangulate butterflyfish or V-lined butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It ...

(''C. trifascialis''), three-striped butterflyfish (''C. tricinctus''), or

three-banded butterflyfish The three-banded butterflyfish (''Chaetodon robustus'') is a species of fish in the family Chaetodontidae. It inhabits the eastern-central Atlantic Ocean, in warm tropical waters from Mauritania down to Cape Verde and the Gulf of Guinea Th ...

(''C. robustus'').

Description and characteristics

The oval butterflyfish and the blacktail butterflyfish resemble ''C. trifasciatus'' in coloration. The former has a less conspicuous back patch below the dorsal fin and a mainly dark

anal fin 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 ...

, while the latter has black

caudal Caudal may refer to: Anatomy * Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism * Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into the ...

and anal fins. Melon, black-tailed and oval butterflyfishes and probably also the somewhat aberrant Arabian butterflyfish ('' C. melapterus'') make up the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Corallochaetodon'', of which ''C. trifasciatus'' is the type species. They are probably quite close to the subgenus called ''"Citharoedus"'' (that name is a junior homonym of a

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

genus), which contains for example the

scrawled butterflyfish The scrawled butterflyfish (''Chaetodon meyeri''), also known as Meyer's butterflyfish or the maypole butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the Indian and P ...

(''C. meyeri''). Like that group, they might be separated in ''Megaprotodon'' if the genus ''

Chaetodon ''Chaetodon'' is a tropical fish genus in the family Chaetodontidae. Like their relatives, they are known as "butterflyfish". This genus is by far the largest among the Chaetodontidae, with about 90 living species included here, though most migh ...

'' is split up.

Habitat and range

The melon butterflyfish is found in the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Western Java, at depths between 2 and 20 m, in coral-rich lagoons and semi-protected seaward reefs. Small

juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...

s are secretive and hide in corals.

Ecology and behaviour

Growing to a maximum of 15 cm long, the

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...

adults swim in pairs and may be

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

and aggressive to other ''

''. Melon butterflyfish feed exclusively on

coral polyp Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

s, particularly of '' Pocillopora''. They are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1661580

melon butterflyfish The melon butterflyfish (''Chaetodon trifasciatus'') or the Indian redfin butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae. It is found in the Indian Ocean from East Africa to Western ...

Fish of Madagascar Fish of the Indian Ocean