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Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish
Chaetodon pelewensis Kner, 1868

A Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish at a depth of 8m, Raine Island, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, November 2001. View larger image.

A Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish at a depth of 10m, Reef at Cormorant Pass, Great Barrier Reef off Lizard Island, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.

A Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish at a depth of 15m, Raine Island, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, November 2001. View larger image.

The Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish has a yellow body with diagonal bands of black spots that become solid lines at the rear of the body. An orange bar with a black margin passes through the eye and the caudal fin base is orange.

This species grows to 12.5cm in length.

It typically inhabits offshore reefs with abundant coral cover. This fish is often seen in pairs. Sometimes one member of the pair is the closely related Spot-Banded Butterflyfish Chaetodon punctatofasciatus. The Spot-Banded Butterflyfish differs by having vertical bands of black spots rather than diagonal.

The Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish is found in depths from 2m to 30m.

It feeds on coral polyps and benthic invertebrates.

This species occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western Pacific, from New Guinea, south to Australia and east to the Tuamoto Islands.

In Australia it is known from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland south to the central New South Wales coast and Lord Howe Island.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

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Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish Chaetodon pelewensis Kner, 1868

Further reading

Dot-and-Dash Butterflyfish
Chaetodon pelewensis Kner, 1868