Shore Buddies Wisdom Wednesday
Photo by Manuela Kirschner
During the day, collar butterflyfish frequently float in highly conspicous small to larger stationary groups in front of coral heads, although many are solitary until they find a partner, with whom they may mate for life. These colourful fish are not shy and live in the western Indo-Pacific. They feeds on coral polyps and bristleworms, occasionally also algae. Butterflyfishes have very fine hair like teeth that enable them to pick out small organisms inaccessible to most other fish for eating. butterflyfishes need to be able to hover motionless while picking at the coral and to dart swiftly over short distances to get the worm before it retracts. They do this by using their Pectoral fins as oars to brake, sprint, turn and even reverse. Many have dark bands across their eyes and round, eye-like dots on their flanks to confuse predators as to which end to strike and in which direction they're likely to flee.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/group/butterflyfish/
https://www.whatsthatfish.com/fish/white-collar-butterflyfish/757