The gold crown butterflyfish, Chaetodon flavocoronatus, is one of the rarest species of butterflyfish that we’ve been writing about since 2009, but had never seen for ourselves until last week. Closely related to the tinker’s butterflyfish from Hawaii, the declivis butterflyfish…
Tinker’s/Burgess butterflyfish hybrid is a perfect cross between the two
A Chaetodon burgessi/tinkeri hybrid butterflyfish has been imported into the UK. It’s been ten whole years since we started to see these pop up in the trade but in that time very few if any have made it to England.…
Auriga Butterflyfish Successfully Cultured by Frank Baensch
The threadfin butterflyfish might be plain among the Chaetodon and not frequently celebrated by saltwater fish keepers, but it’s still an iconic species on tropical coral reefs. Also known as the Auriga butterflyfish, Chaetodon auriga is incredibly hardy, adapts very well…
Misbarred Chaetodon octofasciatus is a Whole New Level of Weird
The eightbanded butterflyfish is a species that isn’t exactly ‘celebrated’ in the aquarium hobby, but this specimen is sure to turn some heads of the exotic fish collectors. Big shoutout to Indonesian aquarist Ihsan Aditya for bringing this fish to…
Milletseed Butterflyfish Captive Bred by Biota Aquariums
The millet seed butterflyfish, Chaetodon miliaris, is a common and very abundant reef fish of Hawaii that is now available captive bred from Biota Aquariums. The milletseed butterflyfish is very hardy but should be even better adapted to aquarium life…
Blueline Butterflyfish Hybrid Still Going Strong After Four Years
Unlike the celebrated and chromatically gifted angelfish, the world of butterflyfish is colored mostly in shades of white, yellow, black and occasionally a touch of red or orange. This is what makes the hawaiian endemic blue stripe butterflyfish, Chaetodon fremblii,…
Semilarvatus Makes One of the Rarest Butterflyfish Hybrids
It’s been a long while since we’ve had a fun butterflyfish hybrid to share with you but what’s cool about this specimen is that it is an aquarium established fish. The parents of this outbred fish were Chaetodon lineolatus and C. semilarvatus,…
Interesting Ecology Shift of Blacktail and Orangeface Butterflyfish
Saltwater fish are among some of the most colorful creatures we can keep as pets but as many species as we have access to, one notable group is a sort of ‘forbidden fruit’ when it comes to living in aquariums.…
Butterflyfish Pairs Must Work Together To Defend their Food
Pairing and monogamy is nearly always associated with sex and reproduction but it turns out that some species of butterflyfish have a different reason to pair up. Competition on tropical reefs is intense for virtually all resources, and there’s always…
Chaetodon argentatus Butterflyfish Hybrid Spotted in Japan
So many times when we see aberrant or hybrid reef fish it’s in the setting of an aquarium livestock dealer. So it’s always a nice surprise to see some of these animals being spotted in their natural environment, and GT…
