Chevroned butterfly fish

Scientific name : Chaetodon trifascialis

Medium size butterfly fish (18 cm), elongated shape, white with a chevroned drawing on sides, orange fins, black eye band and tail.
Common on reef front, in areas with a good hard coral cover. Feeding exclusively on tabular and branching Acropora hard corals. Usually is solitary and territorial, males and females living in neighbouring territories meet only for mating.
Juvenile form has a black posterior band, mimicking some damselfish species very common in the same environment (close to Acropora fields): Chromis retrofasciata and Dascyllus reticulatus. The advantage for the butterfly fish in being similar to the damselfishes, living in shoals in the same environment, is to be unobserved by predators: an animal similar to those around goes easily unnoticed, a very different one calls for attention.
Easy to identify for the elongated shape and triangular fins.

Associated organisms
Feeding association with tabular or branching Acropora corals.