Vagabond butterflyfish
Amazing fact
The vagabond butterflyfish has fine dark lines crossing at right angles on its white body.
Australian Museum
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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The vagabond butterflyfish has fine dark lines crossing at right angles on its white body.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Vagabond butterflyfish
- Scientific name
- Chaetodon vagabundus
- Japanese name
- フウライチョウチョウウオ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Chaetodontiformes
- Family
- Chaetodontidae
- Genus
- Chaetodon
A fish that lives from Japan's southern islands and Pacific coast across a wide area of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Its scientific name means "wandering," and its Japanese name is said to come from fūraibō, a word for a wanderer, to match it.
How the Vagabond butterflyfish lives
It lives on coral reefs and in lagoons, often where water is murky or freshwater flows in. It also eats anemones and polychaete worms. It is usually seen in pairs or small groups.
Australian MuseumBasic data
- Diet
- Algae, coral polyps, crustaceans, and other foods
- Range
- Ogasawara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Vagabond 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
- フウライチョウチョウウオ
- 简体中文
- 斜纹蝴蝶鱼
- 繁體中文
- 飄浮蝴蝶魚
- 한국어
- 황줄나비고기
- Español
- Pez mariposa vagabundo
- Français
- Chétodon à vagabond
- Deutsch
- Vagabund-Falterfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-borboleta-cruzado-do-Pacífico
- Italiano
- Pesce farfalla spigato
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Kepe tikar ekor kuning
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá đào tam hoàng
- Русский
- Окаймленная рыба-бабочка
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 — フウライチョウチョウウオChecked: 2026-11-04
- Australian Museum — Vagabond Butterflyfish, Chaetodon vagabundus Linnaeus, 1758Checked: 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.
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