Sealife guideThe eastern triangle butterflyfishChaetodon baronessa

Taxonomy

Common name: Eastern triangle butterflyfish, triangular butterflyfish
French name: Poisson papillon triangulaire indien
Scientific name: Chaetodon baronessa (Cuvier, 1829)
Family name: Chaetodontidae
Order name: Acanthuriformes
Class name: Actinopterygii

Range

The eastern triangle butterflyfish is found in the central Indo-Pacific region, from the Cocos Islands and Indonesia in the eastern Indian Ocean to the Fiji and Tonga islands, north to southern Japan, and south to New Caledonia and the New South Wales region in Australia.

The eastern triangle butterflyfish (Chaetodon baronessa) © Orlandin | Dreamstime.com

Did you know ?

The eastern triangle butterflyfish is listed as many other marine species within The IUCN Red List of threatened species. The eastern triangle butterflyfish appears in the IUCN Red List since 2010 within the category Least Concern !

Tips for observing

Be careful not to confuse the eastern triangle butterflyfish with two other species of butterflyfish looking similar, the triangle butterflyfish (Chaetodon triangulum) you can find in Madagascar, in Seychelles, in Mautitius island as well as in Chagos archipelago and the triangulate butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifascialis).

Within the same genus

Banded butterflyfish
(Chaetodon striatus)

Masked butterflyfish
(Chaetodon semilarvatus)

Blackback butterflyfish
(Chaetodon melannotus)

Speckled butterflyfish
(Chaetodon citrinellus)

Redfin butterflyfish
(Chaetodon lunulatus)

Blacklip butterflyfish
(Chaetodon kleinii)

Scrawled butterflyfish
(Chaetodon meyeri)

Ornate butterflyfish
(Chaetodon ornatissimus)

Within the same family

Singular bannerfish
(Heniochus singularius)

Horned bannerfish
(Heniochus varius)

Copperbanded butterfly
(Chelmon rostratus)

Orange banded butterflyfish
(Coradion chrysozonus)

Two eyed butterflyfish
(Coradion melanopus)

Longnose butterflyfish
(Forcipiger flavissimus)

Pyramid butterflyfish
(Hemitaurichthys polylepis)

Explore also

Five-lined cardinalfish
(Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus)

Jansen's wrasse
(Thalassoma jansenii)

Signalfin sandgoby
(Fusigobius signipinnis)

Knife razorfish
(Cymolutes praetextatus)

Arabian monocle bream
(Scolopsis ghanam)

Mediterranean moray eel
(Muraena helena)

Banded snake eel
(Myrichthys colubrinus)

Northern stargazer
(Astroscopus guttatus)

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