Lemon Butterflyfish

ID points

• Neat rows of small black dots on a lemon yellow ground
• A black bar through the eye and a black blotch on the tail base
• Endemic to Hawaii, moves in schools along reef slopes

Basics

Family

Chaetodontidae

Length

10–15 cm

Depth

1-250 m

Regions

Indo-Pacific reefs

Distribution

Coral reefs of the Hawaiian Islands

Habitat

Hawaiian reef slopes

Diet

Zooplankton, coral polyps

Easily confused with

Foureye ButterflyfishA large black eyespot edged in white on each side of the tail baseTeardrop ButterflyfishA large teardrop-shaped black spot in the middle of the flankButterflyfishFlattened disc-shaped body with a protruding snout

Fun fact

Bright yellow, with rows of small black dots running down the flank and no complicated banding at all. It has the simplest colour scheme of any butterflyfish, clean and rather sweet.

More in this family

• Bannerfish
• Copperband Butterflyfish
• Eightband Butterflyfish
• Longnose Butterflyfish
• Raccoon Butterflyfish
• Saddleback Butterflyfish