Spotfin butterflyfish

Spotfin butterflyfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Chaetodontidae
Genus:	Chaetodon
Species:	C. ocellatus
Binomial name
	Chaetodon ocellatus; Bloch, 1787

The spotfin butterflyfish (Chaetodon ocellatus) is a butterflyfish found in the western Atlantic Ocean, in the Gulf of Mexico and most commonly found in the Caribbean Sea.

The name is derived from the dark spot on the fish's dorsal fin. This, combined with a vertical, black bar through the eye, is an adaptation that can confuse predators. The vertical black bar disappears as the fish gets older and other black lines become more prominent. Along with other Caribbean Seas reef dwelling tropical fish, many young spotfin butterfly fish get sucked up the gulf stream from July to late October and are dumped into Long Island bays.[1] The spotfin butterfly fish is very common and very hard to maintain in a tank. The spotfin butterfly fish can grow up to 6–8 inches.

References

Venkataraman, Bina. "For Aquariums, the Small Fry Swept North Become a Big Catch". https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05fish.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)

"Chaetodon ocellatus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 6 June 2006.
Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2005). "Chaetodon ocellatus" in FishBase. November 2005 version.

External links

Photos of Spotfin butterflyfish on Sealife Collection

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[1] Venkataraman, Bina. "For Aquariums, the Small Fry Swept North Become a Big Catch". https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05fish.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2014. External link in |website= (help)