🐠 Eightband Butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus)
Marine Fish-Only Butterflyfish • Bright Yellow With Eight Black Bands • Genuine Obligate Coral Specialist • Experts Only — Please Read Before Buying
 
⚠️ Important Feeding Information — Please Read First
We want to be completely honest with you on this one. The Eightband Butterflyfish is widely described as an obligate corallivore, feeding almost entirely on live coral polyps — predominantly Acropora, with a preference for Fungia — in the wild. This makes it genuinely one of the most difficult butterflyfish to keep in captivity, and multiple experienced sources note it frequently starves even in well-run tanks when it fails to transition onto substitute foods. Acclimation is also genuinely difficult and is best attempted only with young specimens. Please only consider this species if you have real experience with coral-specialist fish, and always confirm the specific specimen is already eating before purchase.
 
📋 The Eightband Butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus), also known as the Eight-Striped Butterflyfish, is a striking small fish with a bright yellow body crossed by eight bold black vertical bars.
Native to coral-rich lagoons and inshore reefs across the Indo-West Pacific, from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the Great Barrier Reef, Solomon Islands, and China, this species is typically found in pairs among branching Acropora coral as juveniles.
This species is genuinely not reef safe, and is best suited to a fish-only aquarium given both its coral-eating nature and the practical impossibility of sustaining it long-term without a live coral food source.
 
💛⚫ Highlights
🎨 Bold Eight-Banded Pattern: Bright yellow body with eight black vertical bars
⚠️ Genuine Obligate Coral Specialist: Feeds almost entirely on live coral polyps in the wild
💔 Frequent Captive Starvation: Well documented even among experienced keepers
🐟 Not Reef Safe: Will eat coral polyps and nip at clam mantles
🧠 Experts Only: Not recommended without genuine coral-specialist feeding experience