Crown Butterflyfish in the Red Sea

This is not a great quality image, but it is a fairly uncommon and very localized species, so I thought that it would be nice to have it here. I saw it while snorkeling off the coast of Aqaba, Jordan in the Red Sea. I have only very recently started trying my hand at underwater photography and as you can see, I have A LOT to learn, but it is fun to start photographing fish and learning to identify them. This was made with a GoPro. The undersea world is filled with amazing creatures.

comments (3)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Enjoy your new world, Barry! Posted 7 years ago
1. Barry
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks Ferdy. Yes, it is fascinating the way that you look at the world around you differently when you begin to try and identify the creatures and plants we share it with. For years I would go snorkeling and just think, "Wow, lots of pretty fish". But I found that I got bored after about a half an hour. Then I tried memorizing the pattern of a few, but it was challenging because you would always see new fish and it was easy to get confused. Finally I have started bringing a small underwater camera with me and the whole experience has changed. I photograph every fish and then can look up the species later and I find it much more interesting and I am even slowly starting to learn many fish by sight. It is like birdwatching in a new region - unlike in Germany where I pretty much know everything I encounter, snorkeling is now a real adventure with new things to discover in every corner. On my last trip to South Africa I watched a species called the Shyshark (no picture unfortunately) - who would have thought? Posted 7 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    I had the same experience when first starting with macro, never thought it was my thing, but completely changed my perspective. Also, becoming species-aware in general is such a wonderful thing. Posted 7 years ago

The Eritrean butterflyfish

The Eritrean butterflyfish or crown butterflyfish, ''Chaetodon paucifasciatus'', is a species of butterflyfish . It is essentially just known from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, but has been reported from East Africa.

It grows up to 14 cm in length. It is white with black chevrons, except for a red zone stretching from the aft dorsal fin across the caudal peduncle to the end of the anal fin. A red bar runs vertically through the caudal fin. There are black eyestripes and a black "crown".. more

Info 2 0

Similar species: Butterflyfishes, Angelfishes

Species identified by Barry