Orange diagonal bands on white; another obligate coral feeder, and always in a pair.
To about 20 cm, white-grey with six orange-brown diagonal bands running up and back across the flanks, black bars across the head and eye, and black-edged yellow fins. The bands are straight and evenly spaced, which separates it from Meyer’s butterflyfish and its curves.
It takes only hard coral polyps and holds a territory over living coral with a long-term partner; pairs stay together for years and the loss of one is followed by a period in which the survivor searches. It is consequently a poor indicator species to expect on a degraded reef. It is wary and keeps moving, and a photograph of both fish of a pair in the same plane is a matter of patience. Recorded from about 3 to 35 m.
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.