Black Pyramid Butterflyfish

Care at a glance

Overview

Give it a 400 litre or larger tank with open swimming room, kept at 24 to 27 C and pH 8.1 to 8.4. It is reef safe with caution, as a well fed fish generally leaves corals alone but may pick when hungry. It is easy to feed for a butterflyfish and will take mysis, enriched brine, frozen pods, and eventually flake and pellet. It is peaceful and does well singly or in a small group in a big tank.

In the wild

The black pyramid butterflyfish gathers in large schools along reef edges and drop offs, feeding on plankton drifting in open water. It has a broad white triangle across a dark brown body. Unlike most butterflyfish it is a midwater plankton feeder rather than a coral picker. It needs open water to swim and cruise.

Good to know

Hemitaurichthys zoster is a plankton feeding butterflyfish in the family Chaetodontidae. Its midwater diet is why it is one of the few butterflyfish considered reasonably reef safe. Large groups form feeding aggregations that hang in the current above the reef.

Did you know

Because it evolved to eat drifting plankton, it is one of the only butterflyfish many reef keepers will risk adding to a coral tank.

Related species

• 

  Pyramid Butterflyfish

  Hemitaurichthys polylepis

  7.1 in (18 cm)124 gal (470 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Copperband Butterflyfish

  Chelmon rostratus

  7.9 in (20 cm)79 gal (300 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Schooling Bannerfish

  Heniochus diphreutes

  8.3 in (21 cm)124 gal (470 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Klein's Butterflyfish

  Chaetodon kleinii

  5.9 in (15 cm)79 gal (300 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Big Longnose Butterflyfish

  Forcipiger longirostris

  8.7 in (22 cm)100 gal (380 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Golden Butterflyfish

  Chaetodon semilarvatus

  9.1 in (23 cm)151 gal (570 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)