Oriental butterflyfish
Amazing fact
Young oriental butterflyfish have an eye-like mark at the back of the dorsal fin that disappears as they grow.
沖縄美ら海水族館
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Young oriental butterflyfish have an eye-like mark at the back of the dorsal fin that disappears as they grow.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Oriental butterflyfish
- Scientific name
- Chaetodon auripes
- Japanese name
- チョウチョウウオ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Chaetodontiformes
- Family
- Chaetodontidae
- Genus
- Chaetodon
A fish of rocky reefs and coral reefs from central Honshu southward to Taiwan and the Philippines.
The black band running through its eye is thought to help protect it by hiding where its eye is.
How the Oriental butterflyfish lives
It pecks at organisms attached to rocks.
沖縄美ら海水族館Basic data
- Size
- Total length: about 20 cm
- Range
- Central Honshu southward, Taiwan, and the Philippines
Where the Oriental butterflyfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- チョウチョウウオ
- 简体中文
- 耳带蝴蝶鱼
- 繁體中文
- 耳帶蝴蝶魚
- 한국어
- 나비고기
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-borboleta-oriental
- Italiano
- Pesce farfalla orientale
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Kepe-kepe oriental
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 沖縄美ら海水族館 — チョウチョウウオChecked: 2026-11-03
- 鳥羽水族館 — チョウチョウウオChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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