Ornate butterflyfish

Ornate Butterflyfish
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At Sipadan Island (Malaysia)
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:	"Citharoedus"
Species:	C. ornatissimus
Binomial name
Chaetodon ornatissimus G. Cuvier, 1831

The Ornate Butterflyfish, Chaetodon ornatissimus, is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae). The Ornate Butterflyfish is widespread throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific area.

The Coral hind is a small size fish and can reach a maximum size of 20 cm length . It is found in depths down to 36 m.

It is a close relative of the Mailed Butterflyfish (C. reticulatus) and the Scrawled Butterflyfish (C. meyeri). Together they make up the subgenus called "Citharoedus", but as this name had already been used for a mollusc genus when it was given to the fish, it is not valid. They are probably quite close to the subgenus Corallochaetodon which contains for example the Melon Butterflyfish (C. trifasciatus). Like these, they might be separated in Megaprotodon if the genus Chaetodon is split up.

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 ornatissimus. 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