Find a Fish
Redfin Butterflyfish
Chaetodon lunulatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1825
A Redfin Butterflyfish at a depth of 15m, Tijou Reef, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, December 1999. View larger image.
The Redfin Butterflyfish can be recognised by its colouration. It has a yellowish tinge with oblique purple-blue stripes.
A yellow-edged black bar passes through the eye, and a narrow black line crosses the cheek behind the eye.
The red-orange anal fin has a yellow-edged black band along its base.
This species grows to 15cm in length.
It eats coral polyps.
The Redfin Butterflyfish is known from the western Pacific.
In Australia it is recorded off north-western Western Australia and from the northern Great Barrier Reef to southern Queensland.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Allen, G.R., Steene, R. & M. Allen. 1998. A Guide to Angelfishes & Butterflyfishes. Odyssey Publishing/Tropical Reef Research. Pp. 250.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557. (as C.trifasciatus).
