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Fish Facts

Redtail Butterflyfish, (Chaetodon collare)

stewart whitfield - Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Red-tailed Butterflyfish or redtail butterflyfish (Chaetodon collare), also known as the Pakistani Butterflyfish, is a species of butterflyfish (familyChaetodontidae).

It can be found in reefs of the Indo-Pacific oceans: from the Persian Gulf and Maldives to Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. It usually swims at depths of between 3 and 15 m.[1]

It can grow to 18 cm (over 7 in) in length. The Red-tailed Butterflyfish is brown to black, with lighter scales giving it a spotted appearance. It has a prominent, vertical white streak behind the eyes, a dark stripe over the eyes, and another, smaller white stripe in front of the eyes. The base of the tail is bright red, followed by a black stripe. The tip of the tail is diffuse white.[1]

In the wild, its diet consists of coral polyps. In captivity, it is a carnivore, taking fish meat and shrimp

Red-tailed Butterflyfish

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Chaetodon (but see text)
Subgenus: Rabdophorus
Species: C. (R.) collare
Binomial name
Chaetodon (Rabdophorus) collare
Bloch, 1787


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