A Red Sea species, pale with fine diagonal lines and a black-and-white patch behind the head.
To about 14 cm. White with black chevrons, a black eye bar, a black-and-white crown mark on the head, and a red-orange zone running from the rear dorsal across the tail base to the end of the anal fin, with a red bar on the tail.
It is the only Red Sea Chaetodon with a white chevroned body and a discrete red patch behind. The exquisite butterflyfish is orange with a black anal fin and tail; the Red Sea raccoon is yellow with diagonal stripes.
Four to sixty-five metres by one source and one to thirty by another, over coral and rubble, in pairs or small groups, and monogamous. It takes coral polyps, gorgonians, algae, polychaetes and small crustaceans, so it is a mixed feeder rather than an obligate corallivore.
It is heavily prized in the aquarium trade.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.