Pennant coralfish
Amazing fact
The pennant coralfish grows a longer dorsal spine as it matures.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The pennant coralfish grows a longer dorsal spine as it matures.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Pennant coralfish
- Scientific name
- Heniochus acuminatus
- Japanese name
- ハタタテダイ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Chaetodontiformes
- Family
- Chaetodontidae
- Genus
- Heniochus
A fish that lives from the coasts of Chiba to Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands to Korea, Taiwan and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It looks so much like the mure-hatatatedai that the two are hard to tell apart by shape.
How the Pennant coralfish lives
Young fish often live alone. Young fish sometimes eat parasites from other fish. Its long snout and brushlike teeth help it reach food in coral reef crevices.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- The Ogasawara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, southern Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Gulf of Thailand, Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Pennant coralfish 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
- ハタタテダイ
- 简体中文
- 马夫鱼
- 繁體中文
- 白吻雙帶立旗鯛
- 한국어
- 두동가리돔
- Español
- Pez coral
- Français
- Cocher
- Deutsch
- Gemeiner Wimpelfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-bandeira-comum
- Italiano
- Pesce farfalla pennato
- العربية
- سمكة العلم طويلة الزعنفة
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Layaran kuning
- Русский
- Белопёрая кабуба
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 — ハタタテダイChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Heniochus acuminatusChecked: 2026-11-06
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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