At a glance the quick version
Up to 20 cm in the wild; aquarium fish often stay smaller.
Looks how to spot one
Scaled, deep and compressed butterflyfish with a long beak
A tall, flat butterflyfish with a long, slender snout built for probing into crevices. The silvery-white body carries several orange-yellow vertical bands edged in black, a dark false eyespot sits on the rear of the dorsal fin, and a dark bar crosses the base of the tail.23
Personality what they are like
Peaceful and somewhat shy. It moves deliberately around the rockwork, investigating holes and crevices with its beak.32
Daily activity how busy a day looks
Steady, graceful swimmer that spends much of the day exploring rock and searching for small food items.23
Grooming and care the hands-on bits
Best suited to experienced aquarists with a well-established, stable tank. It can be a choosy eater at first, so offer a range of small foods. It may pick at feather dusters and other small invertebrates. Water: about 22 to 26 °C (72 to 78 °F) per LiveAquaria, or 24 to 29 °C per Wikipedia; pH 8.1 to 8.4, dKH 8 to 12, specific gravity 1.020 to 1.025.32
Home where they are happiest
A large, mature aquarium; recommended minimums range from about 75 US gallons (about 285 L) to 130 US gallons (about 490 L), with plenty of live rock to explore. Wild fish live on coral reefs, rocky shores, estuaries and silty inner reefs at 1 to 25 m.231
Food basics what goes in the bowl
Carnivore. Wild fish pick small invertebrates such as tube worms, small clams and other molluscs from the reef; in aquariums offer frozen mysis, chopped clam or mussel and other small meaty foods.213
Company who they like around
Usually kept as a single fish; in the wild it lives alone or in pairs and adults form monogamous breeding pairs.13
The story where it all began
Carl Linnaeus described the copperband in 1758 in his landmark Systema Naturae, making it one of the earliest named reef fishes. It is one of three long-beaked Chelmon species and has long been prized by aquarists for its looks and its taste for aiptasia anemones.21
Fun facts for the dinner table
- 1
It wears a dark false eyespot near the back of its dorsal fin, set well away from its real eye.2
- 2
Reef keepers often add it to their tanks because it eats aiptasia, a common nuisance anemone.2
- 3
Its long, tweezer-like beak lets it pick food out of narrow cracks other fish cannot reach.3
- 4
It was named by Carl Linnaeus himself in 1758.1
Recognised by the official bits
- IUCN Red List
- Least Concern (assessed October 2009)1
- Taxonomy
- Family Chaetodontidae; described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758; one of three Chelmon species2
The care rhythm Furry Diary remembers it for you
A typical home-care rhythm for a Copperband Butterflyfish. It is our own starting plan, not a vet's advice, and you can change every line in the app.
- FeedingSmall amounts once or twice a dayevery day
- Temperature checkevery day
- Salinity checkevery week
- Top-upTop up evaporation with fresh RO water, not salt waterevery day
- Water testevery week
- Water changeAbout 10 to 20% of the waterevery 2 weeks
- Glass cleanevery week
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Where this comes from
Every breed page shows where each fact comes from. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are pet people, not a science magazine. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
- FishBase: Chelmon rostratus fishbase.seused for origin, size, habitat, behaviour, IUCN status
- Wikipedia: Copperband butterflyfish en.wikipedia.orgused for description, diet, taxonomy, aquarium notes
- LiveAquaria: Copperband Butterflyfish liveaquaria.comused for care level, tank size, water parameters, feeding
Checked 2026-09-30. Text is written in our own words from these sources.