Pebbled butterflyfish

Chaetodon multicinctus

FAMILY

Chaetodontidae

TAXONOMY

Chaetodon multicinctus Garrett, 1863, Hawaiian Islands.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

Hawaiian: Kikakapu.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Deep, compressed body, whitish in color, with four to six narrow brown or gold-brown bars and many faint olive spots on both the body and the fins; a gold-brown eye bar on the head, a black and gold bar on the caudal peduncle, and a solid black bar on the caudal fin. To 4.5 in (12 cm) total length.

DISTRIBUTION

Limited to the Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll in the east-central Pacific.

HABITAT

Seaward or lagoon coral reefs, usually with considerable stands of Porites and Pocillopora corals, between 16 and 98 ft (5–30 m) in depth.

BEHAVIOR

Forms heterosexual pairs but occasionally occurs in small aggregations.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Omnivorous, its diet consisting of coral polyps, polychaete worms, small crustaceans, and algae.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Gonochoristic. Paired courtship just before or after sunset into early evening, with pelagic spawning in the water column. Spawning pairs are occasionally joined by one or more intruding males who attempt to spawn with the female. The intruders may be either rogue males or paired males who have temporarily abandoned their mates. Courtship occurs between December and July, but courtship and spawning is most pronounced between March and July. Eggs and larvae are pelagic. The eggs are spherical and small (0.023–0.029 in [0.6–0.75 mm] in diameter). Larvae are around 0.059 in (1.5 mm) in length at hatching and have a large yolk sac. The mouth is unformed and the eyes are unpigmented. With growth, the larva develops fused head plates that extend over the trunk of the body. This is known as the thoichthys stage of development; it adapts the larva to a long pelagic phase. Other adaptations include spine formation on the head, dorsal, and pelvic fins.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN. Coral habitats may be threatened by coral bleaching, pollution, sedimentation, and other forms of degradation that may negatively impact populations of this limited-distribution species.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

May be collected for the aquarium trade, but this and many other butterflyfishes generally do poorly in most aquaria.