Butterfly fish photo album

Though often seen in aquarium shops, a number of butterfly fish are not suitable for reef aquarium life. A main part of most of the butterfly fishes diet consists of live coral polyps'..... these fish should not be housed in a reef aquarium. Even a fish occasionally pecking at coral specimens throughout the day will prevent the corals displaying at their best, or at worst one butterfly could eat away the soft tissue of a coral specimen within a day or two. 

Butterfly fish are active colourful fish and do have useful applications for some aquariums. If you keep a fish only aquarium they are definitely worth a look at. Larger specimens can make a stunning display even in a predator style aquarium. Some species are great at controlling aptisa anemones, at least one the Margined coral fish can be safely housed in a reef aquarium and control the pesky anemones. Make sure you see any butterfly fish eat before you buy any specimens. They do require training to eat prepared aquarium feeds. At Oceanarium, we only release fish for sale that are already feeding in our display aquariums.

Common name	Scientific name	Origin	Picture	Star rating 1-4	Comments
Black Back Butterflyfish	Chaetodon melannotus	WA		****	Nice fish though a rare catch in WA waters.
Blue Spot Butterflyfish	Chaetodon plebeius	WA		**	Difficult to entice to start feeding but a real goer once feeding.
Chevroned Butterflyfish	Chaetodon trifascialis	WA		***
Golden Striped Butterfly fish	Chaetodon aureofasciatus	WA		*	The most prolific by far of butterfly fish where we collect. Not suited to aquarium life, very difficult to entice eating anything other than live coral polyps.
Lined Butterflyfish	Chaetodon lineolatus	WA		***
Margined Coralfish	Chelmon marginalis	WA		****	Reef safe (except some tube worms) and a excellent aptisa anemone control fish. Does require a little work to begin feeding on other aquarium foods (mainly larger specimens).
Ocellate Coralfish	Parachaetodon ocelatus	WA		***	Small specimens are easy to start feeding and reef safe. Avoid larger specimens as they are very difficult to start feeding.
Philippine Butterfly fish	Chaetodon adiergastos	WA		****	A very good butterfly highly sought after and a uncommon catch.
Racoon Butterflyfish	Chaetodon fasciatus	WA		****	Very useful aptisa anemone eater,  although not reef safe.
Schooling Banerfish	Heniochus diphreutes	WA		****	Otherwise known as the poor mans Moorish idol. Very good aquarium fish rapidly adapts to new diets. Can be reef safe, although if it learns to eat coral ,look out as it can be devastating.
Striped butterfly fish	Selenotoca multifasciata	WA		****	This fish is the odd one out here, though not found living on coral reefs rather in tropical rivers, it is closely related to the coral eating fishes. These guys are tough as nails when it comes to aquarium life capable of tolerating a wide range of temperatures and salinity, from freshwater through to high strength sea water and are reef safe.
Threadfin Butterfly fish	Chaetodon auriga	WA		****	Rapidly adapts to aquarium life and food.