Marine life  /  Butterflyfish  /  Red Sea raccoon butterflyfish
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Species entry

Red Sea raccoon butterflyfish

Chaetodon fasciatus

The Red Sea raccoon, separated from the Indo-Pacific one by the diagonal lines running up rather than across.

Size
To 22 cm
Depth
3–30 m
Habitat
Reef slopes and coral heads
Active
Daylight
Range
Indo-Pacific
Rarity
Red Sea
1 star of 5, found on most dives
SP-01
red sea raccoon butterflyfish · full body · habitat
4:3 · min 2400px

To about 22 cm, common at 15. A yellow body with about eleven dark diagonal stripes, a black bar through the eye, an incomplete white band on the forehead behind it, and dark to reddish margins on the yellow dorsal, anal and tail fins.

The raccoon butterflyfish proper is the fish to separate it from and the tail base does it: a black spot or bar there, nothing here. That fish also has oblique yellow stripes behind the head which this one lacks. In practice location settles it, because the raccoon butterflyfish is absent from the Red Sea and there is no other raccoon-type Chaetodon here.

Two to twenty-five metres in areas of rich coral, solitary or in monogamous pairs. It feeds mainly on coral polyps, and also on gelatinous zooplankton including jellyfish and comb jellies, so it is bleaching-sensitive even though the sources stop short of calling it obligate.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Red Sea Egypt editorial estimate
1 star of 5, found on most dives
Year-round
3–30 m
Reef slopes and coral heads

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.

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