Hundreds of Chaetodon daedalma form an awesome wrought iron ball

By on Feb 05, 2010

We might think of some reef fish as being rare but this video of a huge school of wrought iron butterflyfish shows how locally common some fish species can be. While most aquarist would be content to see even one Chaetodon daedalma here in the U.S., these lucky divers at have born witness to a what they call a “wrought iron ball” with hundreds of medium sized fish swimming together and converging and dispersing from grazing spots within seconds. The video was uploaded by a dive shop called Bientos that operates out of Hachijo-jima, a popular dive spot in the Izu Islands South of Japan but north of the Ogasawara Islands. We’ve posted our share of wrought iron butterflyfish videos in the past but this writhing mass of this species really takes the cake.

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  • pickle

    what are those big pipefish looking guys cruising with the school of butterflies?

  • pickle

    what are those big pipefish looking guys cruising with the school of butterflies?

  • Tim Morrissey

    A species of trumpetfish.

    And I wonder if the butterflies were getting ready to spawn or had spawned? That is a large group!

  • Tim Morrissey

    A species of trumpetfish.

    And I wonder if the butterflies were getting ready to spawn or had spawned? That is a large group!

  • Austin

    That’s HAWT!

  • Austin

    That’s HAWT!

  • http://artchang.com Art

    If this is the behavior of these fish in their natural habitat, I can’t imagine majority of home tanks to be able to supply that kind of behavior. Makes you think again before getting ornamental fish! Gah, the choices! >.< Can't we all just have a gigantic reef in our backyards?

    Beautiful though, quite an awesome video.

  • http://artchang.com Art

    If this is the behavior of these fish in their natural habitat, I can’t imagine majority of home tanks to be able to supply that kind of behavior. Makes you think again before getting ornamental fish! Gah, the choices! >.< Can't we all just have a gigantic reef in our backyards?

    Beautiful though, quite an awesome video.

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