White with yellow fins and a small black spot at the rear of the dorsal fin. Usually in pairs over reef.
To about 20 cm. A white body with a black bar from the nape through the eye to the chest; the tail base and the dorsal, caudal, anal and pelvic fins yellow; and a black spot at the rear corner of the soft dorsal. At night it darkens into bands. Juveniles add a second black bar running from the soft dorsal base down to the anal fin base.
It is the only one of the three Caribbean Chaetodon here with a plain white body and no chevron lines, which is the quickest way to separate it from both the banded and the foureye.
Nought to thirty metres on shallow clear-water reef, with juveniles in seagrass. It pairs to breed. Its larvae drift a long way north in summer and it has been recorded as far as Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, which is unusual for a tropical reef fish.
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.