Raccoon butterflyfish

Care at a glance

Overview

The raccoon butterflyfish is a mostly peaceful butterflyfish for a saltwater tank without corals. It suits a keeper with some experience.

Caring for the raccoon butterflyfish

Give a single raccoon butterflyfish at least 106 gal (400 L), with plenty of rockwork, caves and overhangs to retreat into during the day. It needs a well-established tank, since it is sensitive to copper-based medications and poor water quality. It is one of the more food-driven butterflyfish and will pick at soft corals, large-polyp stony corals, anemones, tubeworms and clam mantles. Keep it in a fish-only or fish-only-with-live-rock system rather than a reef tank.

Keep the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. It is a strong eater once settled, taking mysis, chopped seafood, marine pellets and algae-based foods.

New arrivals often hide through the first several days and only come out to feed as the lights dim. That can look like a sick or stressed fish, but it is just running on its nocturnal schedule. Give a newly imported fish a few quiet, dimly lit days to start feeding.

Raccoon butterflyfish are mostly peaceful and mix well with similarly sized tank mates. They can be a bit more assertive at feeding time than other butterflyfish. They may squabble with their own kind unless a pair is introduced together.

Good to know

The raccoon butterflyfish belongs to the family Chaetodontidae. It is named for the black bandit-mask marking across its eyes, which resembles a raccoon's face. Just behind the mask sits a black crescent edged in white. That crescent gives the species its scientific name lunula, or little moon.

In the wild

The raccoon butterflyfish is found across the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, from East Africa to Hawaii and the Marquesas. Its range runs north to Japan and south to Lord Howe Island. It lives on lagoon and seaward reefs, sheltering under coral ledges and in caves by day. It is mostly nocturnal in the wild and most active around dusk.

Common questions

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