Blacktail butterflyfish

Black-tailed Butterflyfish
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Chaetodontidae
Genus:	Chaetodon (but see text)
Subgenus:	Corallochaetodon
Species:	C. (C.) austriacus
Binomial name
Chaetodon (Corallochaetodon) austriacus Rüppell 1836
Synonyms
Chaetodon klunzingeri Kossmann & Räuber, 1877

The Black-tailed Butterflyfish (or blacktail butterflyfish), also called Exquisite Butterflyfish, is known as Chaetodon austriacus by its scientific name. This species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae) is found in the Red Sea and around southern Oman only.^[1] Supposedly, a Black-tailed Butterflyfish was sighted in El Nido, Palawan (Philippines) by Dr. Gerry Allen during a fish identification project in July 2007.^[2]

The Black-tailed Butterflyfish is up to 14 cm long and is orange with thin, curved black stripes. Its anal fin and tail are black. The body of juveniles is whiter above with white bands on the tail. The Melon butterflyfish (C. trifasciatus) and the Oval butterflyfish (C. lunulatus) are similar in coloration but have less black on the caudal and anal fins.^[3]

Together with the Melon and Oval butterflyfishes and probably also the somewhat aberrant Arabian butterflyfish (C. melapterus) it makes up the subgenus Corallochaetodon. They are probably quite close to the subgenus called Citharoedus (that name is a junior homonym of a mollusc genus), which contains for example the Scrawled butterflyfish (C. meyeri). Like that group, they might be separated in Megaprotodon if the genus Chaetodon is split up.^[4]

Black-tailed butterflyfishes tend to be found in coral-rich areas between 0.5 and 20 m deep, on seaward reefs or in lagoons or bays. Adults are generally found in pairs patrolling a territory or range while juveniles are found among coral branches. This species grazes on coral polyps and sea anemone tentacles.^[3]

Footnotes

1. ^ Lieske & Myers (2004), FishBase (2008)
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ ^{a b} Lieske & Myers (2004)
4. ^ Fessler & Westneat (2007), Hsu et al. (2007)

References

• Fessler, Jennifer L. & Westneat, Mark W. (2007): Molecular phylogenetics of the butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae): Taxonomy and biogeography of a global coral reef fish family. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 45(1): 50–68. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.018 (HTML abstract)
• FishBase [2008]: Chaetodon austriacus. Retrieved 2008-SEP-01.
• Hsu, Kui-Ching; Chen, Jeng-Ping & Shao, Kwang-Tsao (2007): Molecular phylogeny of Chaetodon (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae) in the Indo-West Pacific: evolution in geminate species pairs and species groups. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 14: 77-86. PDF fulltext
• Lieske, E. & Myers, R.F. (2004): Coral reef guide – Red Sea. HarperCollins, London. ISBN 0-00-715986-2