Butterflyfish

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"Butterfly Fish" redirects here. For the novel, see Butterfly Fish (novel). For an unrelated species, see Freshwater butterflyfish.

Butterflyfishes
Temporal range: Miocene–present[1]
Various examples of butterflyfishes, along with angelfishes
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Percoidei
Family: Chaetodontidae
Rafinesque, 1810
Genera

About 10, see text

Synonyms

Chaetodontinae (but see text)

The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous

species pairs occur in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, members of the huge genus Chaetodon
.

Butterflyfish look like smaller versions of angelfish (

paraphyletic Perciformes
, the former are probably not too distantly related to butterflyfish, whereas the Zanclidae seem far less close.

Description and ecology

false Moorish idols
, Heniochus diphreutes

Butterflyfish mostly range from 12 to 22 cm (4.7 to 8.7 in) in length. The largest species, the lined butterflyfish and the saddle butterflyfish, C. ephippium, grow to 30 cm (12 in). The common name references the brightly coloured and strikingly patterned bodies of many species, bearing shades of black, white, blue, red, orange, and yellow. Other species are dull in colour. Butterflyfish are a boundless, different group of marine percoids with delegates on practically all coral reef frameworks and in every single tropical ocean. Their bright and color patterns have drawn in much consideration, creating an abundance of data about their conduct and environment.[3] Many have eyespots on their flanks and dark bands across their eyes, not unlike the patterns seen on butterfly wings.[4] Their deep, laterally narrow bodies are easily noticed through the profusion of reef life. The conspicuous coloration of butterflyfish may be intended for interspecies communication. Butterflyfish have uninterrupted dorsal fins with tail fins that may be rounded or truncated, but are never forked.

Generally diurnal and frequenting waters less than 18 m (59 ft) deep (though some species descend to 180 m (590 ft), butterflyfish stick to particular home ranges. These corallivores are especially territorial, forming pairs and staking claim to a specific coral head. Contrastingly, the zooplankton feeders form large conspecific groups. By night, butterflyfish hide in reef crevices and exhibit markedly different coloration.

Their coloration also makes them popular aquarium fish. However, most species feed on coral polyps and sea anemones. Balancing the relative populations of prey and predator is complex, leading hobby aquarists to focus on the few generalists and specialist zooplankton feeders.

Butterflyfish are pelagic spawners; that is, they release many buoyant eggs into the water, which become part of the plankton, floating with the currents until hatching. The fry go through a tholichthys stage, wherein the body of the postlarval fish is covered in large, bony plates extending from the head. They lose their bony plates as they mature.[4] Only one other family of fish, the scats (Scatophagidae) express such an armored stage.

Taxonomy, systematics and evolution

The Chaetodontidae can be, but are not usually, divided into two lineages that arguably are

paraphyletic, the precise relationships of the Chaetodontidae as a whole are badly resolved.[5]

Chaetodontidae is classified within the

superfamily Percoidea. This clade contains 7 families which appear to have some relationship to Acanthuroidei, Monodactylidae, and Priacanthidae.[6] Other authorities have paced the family in the order Chaetodontiformes alongside the family Leiognathidae.[7]

Before DNA sequencing, the

subgenera have been proposed for splitting out of Chaetodon, and it is becoming clear how to subdivide the genus if that is desired.[8]

The

basal fossil from the mid- to late Eocene of Europe, dates from around the Bartonian 40–37 million years ago (Mya). Thus, the Chaetodontidae emerged probably in the early to mid-Eocene. A crude molecular clock in combination with the evidence given by Pygaeus allows placement of the initial split between the two main lineages to the middle to late Eocene, and together with the few other fossils, it allows the deduction that most living genera were probably distinct by the end of the Paleogene 23 Mya.[9]

Genera

The bannerfish-coralfish lineage can be further divided in two groups; these might be considered

phylogeny, from the most ancient to the youngest:[5][10]

Bannerfish/coralfish lineage 1:

Bannerfish/coralfish lineage 2:

The "typical" butterflyfishes may eventually come to contain more genera; see Chaetodon:

Timeline

QuaternaryNeogenePaleogeneHolocenePleist.Plio.MioceneOligoceneEocenePaleoceneChelmonChaetodonQuaternaryNeogenePaleogeneHolocenePleist.Plio.MioceneOligoceneEocenePaleocene

Gallery

Further reading

  • Pratchett, Morgan S. & Berumen, Michael L. & Kapoor, B.G. [Editors] : Biology of Butterflyfishes. CRC Press, 2014.
    ISBN 978-1-4665-8290-3

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chaetodontidae.
General
  • Fessler, Jennifer L. & Westneat, Mark W. (2007): Molecular phylogenetics of the butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae): Taxonomy and biogeography of a global coral reef fish family.
    doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.018
    (HTML abstract)
  • FishBase [2008]: Family Chaetodontidae – Butterflyfishes. Retrieved 2008-SEP-02.
  • Hsu, Kui-Ching; Chen, Jeng-Ping & Shao, Kwang-Tsao (2007): Molecular phylogeny of Chaetodon (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae) in the Indo-West Pacific: evolution in geminate species pairs and species groups. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 14: 77–86. PDF fulltext Archived 2007-08-11 at the Wayback Machine
  • Sepkoski, Jack (2002): [Chaetodon]. In: A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. HTML database excerpt
Specific
  1. ISSN 1010-061X
    .
  2. ^ "FAMILY Details for Chaetodontidae - Butterflyfishes". www.fishbase.org.
  3. ^ Smith, W. (2003). The evolution of the laterophysic connection with a revised phylogeny and taxonomy of butterflyfishes (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae). Cladistics the International Journal of the Willi Hennig Society., 19(4), 287–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0748-3007(03)00070-7
  4. ^ a b Johnson, G.D.; Gill, A.C. (1998). Paxton, J.R.; Eschmeyer, W.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. p. 184.
    ISBN 978-0-12-547665-2
    .
  5. ^ a b Fessler & Westneat (2007)
  6. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original
    on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  7. PMID 28683774
    .
  8. ^ Fessler & Westneat (2007), Hsu et al. (2007)
  9. ^ Sepkoski (2002), Fessler & Westneat (2007)
  10. ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2013). "Chaetodontidae" in FishBase. February 2013 version.
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