Auriga Butterflyfish

1 Species Overview

The auriga butterflyfish is a very popular butterflyfish, fairly easy to keep and gentle enough to mix with other ornamental fish. It is omnivorous, taking prepared foods and live foods alike.

English name: Auriga butterflyfish

Type: Butterflyfish, tropical marine fish

Origin: Indian Ocean, Maldives, Tonga, Fiji

Reproduction: Egg-laying

Water: salinity 1.020 to 1.025; pH 8.1 to 8.4

Difficulty: Easy

Temperature: 26 C

2 Appearance and Physical Traits

The auriga butterflyfish is gentle and can mix with most butterflyfish, but avoid aggressive fish. Its special look and easy care make it a very popular butterflyfish.

The body is silver-white to grey-yellow, with crosswise dark streaks along the scale rows forming a net pattern; it also has three dark saddle bands: the first from the first dorsal spine to the upper gill cover, the second at mid-body, the third from behind the dorsal spines and soft rays through the caudal peduncle to behind the anal fin. The eye band is narrower than the eye and does not reach the lower half. The dorsal soft-ray rear edge is silver-white with a narrow black tip; the front two-thirds of the anal fin is silver-white or yellow with a black edge; the caudal fin has a crescent black bar wider than the eye, with a black edge at the rear.

The auriga eye band is narrower than the eye and does not reach the lower half. Many butterflyfish have a false eye spot near the tail to fool attackers into striking the hard dorsal spines and protect themselves. Butterflyfish are not very territorial; they may squabble but not often.

3 Habitat and Living Environment

The auriga butterflyfish is from the Indian Ocean, Maldives, Tonga, and Fiji; the minimum tank is 250 liters. As a marine fish, salinity 1.020 to 1.025 and pH 8.1 to 8.4 are suggested.

The auriga butterflyfish is a very popular butterflyfish and fairly easy; in the wild it lives around coral reefs. Like other marine fish, color varies by region. The Red Sea form has almost no black eye spot on the back. It is gentle and needs enough hiding spots; it fits a live-rock tank, though it will graze on the rock.

4 Feeding Guidelines

The auriga butterflyfish is omnivorous; captive care needs a hiding spot, but it also grazes on live rock, so training it to feed matters.

It eats various animal foods and algae, frozen, dried, or prepared; dried seaweed is good, and add plant foods like asparagus or broccoli. But keep its diet balanced; do not let food become so single that it lacks nutrition.