- Art Gallery -

Chaetodon vagabundus

Vagabond butterflyfish

Chaetodon vagabundus

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Osteichthyes
Classis: Actinopterygii
Subclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Superordo: Acanthopterygii
Ordo: Perciformes
Subordo: Percoidei
Superfamilia: Percoidea
Familia: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Chaetodon
Species: Chaetodon vagabundus

Name

Chaetodon vagabundus Linnaeus, 1758

Reference

Chaetodon vagabundus Report on ITIS

The Vagabond Butterflyfish, Chaetodon vagabundus, is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae). It is found from the Red Sea and off East Africa as far east as the Tuamotu Islands, north to southern Japan and south to the Austral Islands.[1]

Threadfin Butterflyfish, Chaetodon auriga It belongs to the large subgenus Rabdophorus which might warrant recognition as a distinct genus. In this group, it almost certainly is a rather close relative of the Threadfin Butterflyfish (C. auriga) and the Indian Vagabond Butterflyfish (C. decussatus). The latter might be closer to the Threadfin Butterflyfish; as C. vagabundus has yielded abnormal mtDNA 12S rRNA sequence data this is hard to say however. The C. auriga species group shares the characteristic pattern of two areas of ascending and descending oblique lines; species differ conspicuously in hindpart coloration.[2]

Chaetodon vagabundus are found in reef flats, lagoons and seaward reefs, and sometimes in turbid waters subject to freshwater runoff. They are omnivorous, known to feed on algae, coral polyps, crustaceans and worms. These oviparous, monogamous fish form stable pairs with both pair members jointly defending a feeding territory against other pairs. However they often accompany other species without being aggressive. By the standards of their genus, they are easily maintained in tanks.[1]

Footnotes

^ a b FishBase (2008)
^ 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 vagabundus. Version of 2008-JUL-24. 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

Biology Encyclopedia

Fish Images

Source: Wikipedia, Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License