Japanese butterflyfish

Amazing fact

The adult Japanese butterflyfish has no stripe crossing its eye.

宇久井ビジターセンター

Japanese butterflyfish in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

The adult Japanese butterflyfish has no stripe crossing its eye.

Source宇久井ビジターセンター — シラコダイ

THE REAL WORLD

The real Japanese butterflyfish

Scientific name: Chaetodon nippon
Japanese name: シラコダイ
Group: Ocean animals

Order: Chaetodontiformes
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Chaetodon

Facts about the real animal.

A fish found from the Izu Islands and the Pacific coast between Chiba and Kyushu to the south coast of the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and the northern Philippines.

鳥羽水族館 — シラコダイ

It has a broad, dark brown vertical band toward the rear of its body.

鳥羽水族館 — シラコダイ

When it rests, it turns its body dark.

鳥羽水族館 — シラコダイ

How the Japanese butterflyfish lives

Small individuals are sometimes found alone on the seabed. It swims in schools around deep rocky reefs offshore. It has adapted to temperate seas and breeds even around the Izu Peninsula.

宇久井ビジターセンター

Basic data

Range: Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, Taiwan, northern Philippine Islands, and elsewhere

鳥羽水族館

Where the Japanese 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

Where it livesJapan Asia Coasts

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: シラコダイ
简体中文: 日本蝴蝶鱼
繁體中文: 日本蝴蝶魚
Español: Pez Mariposa Nipona
Français: Poisson-papillon japonais
Deutsch: Japanischer Falterfisch
Português (Brasil): Peixe-borboleta-japonês
Italiano: Pesce farfalla giapponese
Русский: Японский щетинозуб

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

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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