Butterflyfish are a class of beautiful and colorful tropical marine fish, widely distributed in coral reefs and shallow seas in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are known for their unique morphology and bright colors, and are often a popular choice among marine ornamental fish. Their bodies are covered with various stripes and patches, and their body color varies in different environments. They have always been the stars of tropical marine ornamental fish. So, which butterflyfish are the most beautiful? 

Here, the editor has sorted out the top ten most beautiful butterflyfish for you, including yellow butterflyfish, Ding's butterflyfish, eight-band butterflyfish, silk butterflyfish, yellow oblique butterflyfish, multi-scaled xia butterflyfish and Lin's butterflyfish, etc. Let's take a look together!

1. Yellow butterflyfish

Among the many butterflyfish, the yellow butterflyfish is undoubtedly the most representative one, also known as the Red Sea golden butterflyfish. This butterfly fish is famous for its unique beauty and is mainly distributed in the Red Sea with a very limited geographical range. Therefore, their rarity makes their market value high. Many people like to keep this rare fish species together with the big angelfish to show the luxury of the aquarium. In large aquariums, the scene of schooling is very spectacular, giving people a noble and beautiful visual enjoyment.

2. Ding's Butterflyfish

Ding's Butterflyfish, also known as the tank butterfly or monarch butterfly, is a recognized beautiful butterfly fish. Its body is flattened laterally, with a blunt snout and an overall white color. The head has an orange vertical stripe running through the eyes, and the sides of the body are dotted with a series of neat small black spots. There is a conspicuous black oblique band on the back, extending from the third hard spine of the dorsal fin to the soft part of the anal fin. In addition, the edge of the dorsal fin is orange and white, while the soft rays of the anal fin have yellow edges and the caudal fin is yellow. Ding's butterflyfish mainly inhabits the Hawaiian waters in the central Pacific Ocean. Due to its small import volume, the price is relatively high.

3. Eight-band butterflyfish

The eight-band butterflyfish is known as one of the most beautiful butterflyfish, and its aliases include eight-line butterfly and eight-space butterfly. Its body shape is close to a teardrop shape, and its color ranges from light yellow to dark yellow. The color of young fish is the lightest, and it gradually becomes brighter as it grows. It has eight thin black horizontal bands on its body, hence the name. The first horizontal band extends from the front of the eye to the throat, and the last one is located on the edge of the dorsal and anal fins. This simple and elegant stripe pattern is deeply loved by people.

4. Silk Butterflyfish

Silk Butterflyfish, also known as Sail Butterflyfish or Herringbone Butterflyfish, is famous for its unique "herringbone" pattern and is one of the famous butterflyfish. This fish is widely distributed, covering multiple areas from the western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Individuals living in the Red Sea have a darker color where the yellow and white meet, and some also have black spots. Many butterflyfish, especially the Herringbone Butterflyfish, often have black stripes or patches around their eyes, and the end of their dorsal fins often show black spots or stripes similar to eyes.

5. Yellow Twill Butterflyfish

Yellow Twill Butterflyfish, also known as the Gorgeous Butterflyfish or the Yellow Windmill Butterflyfish, is one of the most beautiful butterflyfish in my heart. The fish's body is off-white in the middle, with yellow edges at the bottom, a line of black spots between the eyes, and two dark brown bands behind the eyes. There are six orange diagonal stripes on its sides, black and gold stripes on its head, and black and white stripes on its tail fin. Because they are picky about their food choices and it is often difficult to find suitable food in an aquarium, you can choose to feed them frozen food of invertebrates.

6. Multi-scaled Butterflyfish

Among the genus of Butterflies, the most beautiful is undoubtedly the Multi-scaled Butterflyfish. It is also called the Butterflyfish, the Indian Butterflyfish, or the Diamond Butterflyfish. Its biggest feature is a large bright silver area on its body. This area extends from the center of the base of the dorsal fin to the throat and the caudal peduncle, which is also silver in color. The rest of the fish is bright yellow, including the dorsal and anal fins, forming a prominent yellow-white block, making it the most eye-catching species in the genus of butterfly fish.

7. Lin's butterfly fish

Lin's butterfly fish is also known as the Australian rainbow butterfly. Unlike other butterfly fish with oval bodies, its body shape is closer to round. It is absolutely worthy of the name of rainbow butterfly. It shows the most colorful colors in the butterfly fish family. The orange and light blue lines are intertwined on the light yellow body, like a gorgeous glow. This charming fish is not easy to obtain, because they are only distributed in the coastal areas of eastern Australia in the South Pacific, and the number of fish caught and traded each year is very limited.

8. Embroidered Butterflyfish

Among the many beautiful and rare butterflyfish, the Embroidered Butterflyfish (also known as the Black Light Butterflyfish) is undoubtedly an eye-catching choice. It lives exclusively in the waters of the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands in Japan. Due to the extremely limited fishing and export volume, this fish is very precious worldwide. The Embroidered Butterflyfish has an oval body shape and a short snout. Its body color is black, and each scale has a white edge, which looks as if it is covered with countless small white spots. The color of each fin is black, and the edges of the dorsal fin, anal fin and caudal fin are yellow.

9. Moonlight Butterflyfish

Moonlight Butterflyfish, also known as Black-backed Butterflyfish or Sunlight Butterflyfish, is a well-known butterflyfish, usually between 15 and 20 cm long. Its head is triangular, with a long snout that protrudes forward. The overall body color is golden yellow, with several light blue longitudinal stripes on the abdomen, and an oval blue-black spot on the upper back of the body, accounting for about a quarter of the entire body. The lower edge of this spot has a wide white edge, and the rear edge is orange-red. Overall, it has a black spot with a white edge on its back and above the dorsal fin, while the lower part of the body is colorful and diverse.

10. Ben's Butterflyfish

Ben's Butterflyfish, also known as Sun Butterfly, Double Silk Butterfly or French Butterfly, can reach a maximum length of 20 cm. Its body color is golden yellow, with a large black spot with a silver-blue edge on the upper side of the body. The fish has a black eye band on its head, which is narrow and relatively wide below the eye, but does not extend to the front edge of the pelvic fin. This black band has silver-blue edges in front and behind. At the same time, there are two narrow silver-blue bands extending from the upper corner of the gill cover to the back and bottom to the anal fin. The overall pattern is very beautiful. It is worth noting that this fish has high requirements for water quality and feeds on coral tentacles. It is difficult to raise, especially for larger individuals, so it is best to raise them from young fish.

Ecological significance

Butterflyfish play an important role in coral reef ecosystems, helping to control the number of coral polyps and other invertebrates, thereby maintaining the health and biodiversity of coral reefs. However, some butterflyfish species are threatened by overfishing, coral reef destruction and climate change.

Conclusion

Butterflyfish are not only "artworks" in the ocean, but also important members of the coral reef ecosystem. Their diversity and beauty make them stars in many divers and aquariums, but their survival also depends on a healthy coral reef environment. Protecting coral reefs is essential to protecting these beautiful marine creatures.

animal tags： Butterflyfish