Yellow longnose butterflyfish
Amazing fact
The forceps butterflyfish tears off and eats the tube feet of sea urchins.
Waikīkī Aquarium
No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.
An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The forceps butterflyfish tears off and eats the tube feet of sea urchins.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Yellow longnose butterflyfish
- Scientific name
- Forcipiger flavissimus
- Japanese name
- フエヤッコダイ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Chaetodontiformes
- Family
- Chaetodontidae
- Genus
- Forcipiger
Where the name “Yellow longnose butterflyfish” comes from
Forcipiger, part of its scientific name, means bearing a gripping tool, or forceps, in Latin. Flavissimus, part of its scientific name, means yellow in Latin.
Waikīkī AquariumIt lives in Japanese waters such as around the Izu Peninsula and the Ogasawara and Ryukyu Islands, and across a wide area of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It has a very long snout, though it is a little shorter than that of its look-alike, the longnose butterflyfish.
How the Yellow longnose butterflyfish lives
It lives among corals and on rocky reefs. It probes between coral branches and in reef crevices to find prey. It plucks up and eats small crustaceans and fish eggs.
宇久井ビジターセンターWaikīkī AquariumBasic data
- Range
- Ogasawara Islands, Volcano Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Yellow longnose 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
- フエヤッコダイ
- 简体中文
- 黄镊口鱼
- 繁體中文
- 黃鑷口魚
- Español
- Mariposa hocicona
- Français
- Chelmon à long bec
- Deutsch
- Gelber Masken-Pinzettfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-borboleta-de-focinho-comprido-do-Pacífico
- Italiano
- Pesce pinzetta comune
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Kepe-kepe monyong asli
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá bướm mũi dài vàng
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — フエヤッコダイChecked: 2026-11-04
- Waikīkī Aquarium — Forceps ButterflyfishChecked: 2026-11-07
- 宇久井ビジターセンター — フエヤッコダイChecked: 2026-11-07
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.
Report a mistakeRELATIVES
Others in Chaetodontidae
MORE TO MEET
