Butterflyfish are some of the most iconic species of reef fish, it’s always a nice treat to see unusual species, and hybrids of Chaetodon. Today we have an example of both, a hybrid of the rarely seen Chaetodon wiebelii butterflyfish.
This specimen in particular comes to us from Mr. Ye of Panchiaohai World Aquarium in Taiwan who shared with us this incredible spread of pictures. Also known as the Panda Butterflyfish, Chaetodon wiebeli is found primarily from the waters of China and Taiwan, far from regular collecting areas for the aquarium hobby.
We’ve reported on the Panda butterflyfish before, but interestingly this is not the first C. wiebeli hybrid that we’ve documented. This fish appears to be a clear cross of the Panda butterflyfish and the raccoon butterflyfish, however it looks very different from another fish that we’d labeled as a hybrid offspring of these two species.
