Fish Butterfly - Coral Reef Business Card

Butterfly fish - a representative of the family bristle-toothed. It is a business card coral reef. The structure of the body has a specific, strongly compressed laterally. The head is small, the mouth is small with outstretched lips, the teeth are thin bristle-shaped, in some species their tips are three-vertex. The body is covered with small scales. The dorsal fin is not divided, it extends all over the trunk, in some species its anterior part is elongated and resembles feathers.

Representatives of this family differ in multicolor coloration with a predominance of yellow, black, silver and brown tones with bright blue, red spots or stripes. Due to the unusual coloration of this creature and was called the butterfly fish. The photo shows well the extraordinary brightness of his color.

Contrasting coloring is a method of camouflage: on a background of a coral reef the contours of a body thus are erased. Age dimorphism (color difference between adults and fry) is absent. The size of the fish is small, they rarely exceed 25 cm in length. There are fish with a body height greater than the length, for example, the Heniochus species.

Inhabit the butterfly fish in the tropical seas in the coastal strip. Preference is given to coral reefs and rocky outcrops, as well as to areas of the seas with algal thickets. Butterfly fish does not migrate, settling on one of the reefs, spends the whole life near it. Some individuals even have a permanent "home" in the liked cleft, and when their relatives approach the "house" they are actively driven away. Surprisingly, they do not react to fish of other species of the coral community.

The butterfly fish is very steep and mobile, it can dramatically change the direction of movement. In case of danger, when approaching predatory fish, it hides in the caves and cavities of the reef. Maybe she "fly", jumping out of the water, sliding on the surface, catching insects. When "flying" the pectoral fins do not press against the body, but sometimes fold up.

Sea butterfish leads a solitary lifestyle or floats in a small group of 2-3 individuals. They never form large flocks. Eat various invertebrates, extracting them from the clefts and collecting from the surface of reefs or eating from the skin of large fish.

The meat of these creatures is edible and, they say, is very tasty. But they can be poisoned, because if the fish fed on the tentacles of poisonous actinidia, the toxins accumulated in the tissues. Strong poisoning - ciguatera - can cause death.

Butterfly fish is very popular in reef aquariums. Several species of these fish can coexist peacefully provided a large volume of the aquarium. And they need to be populated at the same time. Otherwise the old-timers will expel the newcomers. With large invertebrates in the aquarium, they get along, and small ones are perceived only as food. Since the butterfly fish like to jump out, the aquarium needs to be partially covered with glass.

The complexity of keeping in domestic aquariums is that the water is salty, the food is special, mostly live. But if there is a desire to keep these fish, then you can overcome any difficulties and even achieve their breeding. In contrast to difficulties - the ability to observe the behavior of these unusual creatures.