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The Eight Banded Butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus) is a small tropical fish species that is a member of the ‘Butterflyfishes’ family Chaetodontidae. It can be found in the Indo-Asian Pacific region and its distribution extends from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands, north to south western Japan and to northern Papua New Guinea. This species can vary in colour between a bright yellow coloured body to a white body. It is easily recognised by the 8 dark black bars that extend vertically along the body and there can be a dark black spot at the base of the tail. This species can be found hiding in amongst branching corals and is known to feed exclusively on coral polyps. It is often encountered in shallow protected lagoons with silty bottoms and inner reefs with good coral cover from depths of 3 to 20 metres. The Eight Banded Butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus) grows to a maximum length of approximately 12cm.
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